Background: Abnormalities in the corpus callosum have long been implicated in schizophrenia. Previous diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in patients with different durations of schizophrenia yielded inconsistent results. By comparing patients with different durations of schizo phrenia, we investigated if white matter abnormalities of the corpus callosum emerge at an early stage in the illness or result from pathological progression. Methods: We recruited patients with first-episode schizophrenia, patients with chronic schizophrenia and age-, sexand handedness-matched healthy controls. We used 2 DTI techniques (voxel-based and fibre-tracking DTI) to investigate differences in corpus callosum integrity among the 3 groups. Results: With both DTI techniques, significantly decreased fractional anisotropy values were identified in the genu of corpus callosum in patients with chronic schizophrenia, but not first-episode schizophrenia, compared with healthy controls. Limitations: This study was cross-sectional, and the sample size was relatively small. Conclusion: Abnormalities in the genu of the corpus callosum might be a progressive process in schizophrenia, perhaps related to disease severity and prognosis.

In most cases, judicial decisions are consistent with a psychiatrist's opinion of criminal responsibility due to a mental disorder or defect. After such adjudication, further psychiatric treatment is often neglected due to the lack of resources and information. Hunan, China must make a continued investment into the availability and quality of outpatient mental health treatment for forensic patients after they have been discharged.

The subjects were 17 head trauma patients whose pre-injury IQ and post-injury IQ scores on the Chinese Revised Version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-RC) were collected and analyzed. All patients had a neuroradiological imaging study. Changes in IQ scores were compared with neuroradiological findings and clinical determinations on the presence or absence of intellectual impairment from head trauma that were made by neuropsychiatrists without knowledge of pre-injury IQ scores. Thirteen patients were clinically determined not to have suffered intellectual impairment, primarily because their post-injury IQs on the WAIS-RC were higher than 70. However, 3 of the 13 had significantly higher pre-injury IQ scores, and they also showed brain damage on CT or MRI. Consideration of pre-injury IQ can improve the determination of intellectual impairment from head injury.