Affiliation:
1. Department of Mental Health, Hospital Psychiatric Service for Diagnosis and Care (S.P.D.C.) of Potenza, ASP Basilicata, Italian National Health Service, Potenza, Italy
2. Department of Mental Health, Hospital Psychiatric Service for Diagnosis and Care (S.P.D.C.) of Potenza, AsFO Friuli Occidentale, Italian National Health Service, Pordenone, Italy
3. Barcelona Bipolar Disorders Program, Hospital Clinic, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERSAM, 170 Villarroel st., Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Abstract
Background: :
Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is a cluster A personality disorder
affecting 1.0% of the general population, characterised by disturbances in cognition and reality testing
dimensions, affected regulation, and interpersonal function. SPD shares similar but attenuated
phenomenological, genetic, and neurobiological abnormalities with schizophrenia (SCZ) and is described
as part of schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
Objective:
The aim of this work was to identify major neural correlates of SPD.
Methods:
This is a systematic review conducted according to PRISMA statement. The protocol
was prospectively registered in PROSPERO - International prospective register of systematic reviews.
The review was performed to summarise the most comprehensive and updated evidence on
functional neuroimaging and neurophysiology findings obtained through different techniques (DW-
MRI, DTI, PET, SPECT, fMRI, MRS, EEG) in individuals with SPD.
Results:
Of the 52 studies included in this review, 9 were on DW-MRI and DTI, 11 were on PET
and SPECT, 11 were on fMRI and MRS, and 21 were on EEG. It was complex to synthesise all the
functional abnormalities found in a single, unified, pathogenetic pathway, but a common theme
emerged: the dysfunction of brain circuits including striatal, frontal, temporal, limbic regions (and
their networks) together with a dysregulation along the dopaminergic pathways.
Conclusion:
Brain abnormalities in SPD are similar, but less marked, than those found in SCZ. Furthermore,
different patterns of functional abnormalities in SPD and SCZ have been found, confirming
the previous literature on the ‘presence’ of possible compensatory factors, protecting individuals
with SPD from frank psychosis and providing diagnostic specificity.
Publisher
Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.
Subject
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging
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