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Patients with schizophrenia have smaller mean volumes in many brain regions, and these tissue losses progress over time. To examine whether symptomatic relapses and psychiatric medications alter the course of these losses, investigators examined records of 202 schizophrenia spectrum patients with clinical data starting at initial presentation and continuing every 6 months for at least 5 years (mean follow-up, 7 years) and with at least two brain magnetic resonance imaging scans (mean, 3 scans).
Of the patients, 157 experienced at least one relapse (mean, 1.64); 16 were so persistently ill that they did not improve enough to relapse. Analyses adjusted for covariates (e.g., sex, age). Greater duration of relapses was significantly associated w…