The American journal of psychiatry
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This study tested for differences of white matter integrity between treated and never-treated long-term schizophrenia patients, matched on illness duration, and for differential changes in relation to age in these two groups relative to healthy comparison subjects. ⋯ These psychoradiological findings provide insight into the regional distribution of white matter deficits in the years after illness onset in long-term schizophrenia. Findings of greater impairments in never-treated patients, and a greater age-related reduction in the genu of the corpus callosum in these patients, suggest that long-term antipsychotic treatment does not adversely affect white matter tracts over the longer-term course of illness and may confer benefits.