Pituitary volume reduction in schizophrenia following cognitive behavioural therapy

Premkumar, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1934-6741, Bream, D, Sapara, A, Fannon, D, Anilkumar, AP, Kuipers, E and Kumari, V, 2017. Pituitary volume reduction in schizophrenia following cognitive behavioural therapy. Schizophrenia Research. ISSN 0920-9964

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Abstract

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for psychosis (CBTp) aims to lower the stress of psychotic symptoms. Given that the pituitary is involved in stress regulation, CBT-led stress reduction may be accompanied by a change in pituitary volume. This study aimed to determine whether CBTp reduces pituitary volume in schizophrenia. The relation between pre-therapy memory and CBTp-led pituitary volume change was also examined given that poor memory relates to a blunted cortisol awakening response, denoting impaired stress response, in schizophrenia. Pituitary volume was measured at baseline in 40 schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder patients and 30 healthy participants before therapy. Pituitary volume was measured again 6–9 months after patients had either received CBTp in addition to standard care (CBTp + SC, n = 24), or continued with standard care alone (SC, n = 16). CBTp + SC and SC groups were compared on pituitary volume change from baseline to follow-up. Pre-therapy memory performance (Hopkins Verbal Learning and Wechsler Memory Scale – Logical memory) was correlated with baseline-to-follow-up pituitary volume change. Pituitary volume reduced over time in CBTp + SC patients. Additionally, pre-therapy verbal learning correlated more strongly with longitudinal pituitary volume reduction in the CBTp + SC group than the SC group. To conclude, CBTp reduces pituitary volume in schizophrenia most likely by enhancing stress regulation and lowering the distress due to psychotic symptoms.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Schizophrenia Research
Creators:	Premkumar, P., Bream, D., Sapara, A., Fannon, D., Anilkumar, A.P., Kuipers, E. and Kumari, V.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	21 April 2017
ISSN:	0920-9964
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.schres.2017.04.035 DOI
Rights:	© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	26 Apr 2017 08:07
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 14:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/30542

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