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. 2020 Jan 20:7:2.
doi: 10.1186/s40673-020-0111-8. eCollection 2020.

Abnormal cerebellar volume in somatic vs. non-somatic delusional disorders

Joshua Krämer #  1 , Markus Huber #  2 , Christina Mundinger  1 , Mike M Schmitgen  1 , Roger Pycha  2 , Erwin Kirchler  2 , Christian Macina  2 , Martin Karner  3 , Dusan Hirjak  4 , Katharina M Kubera  1 , Malte S Depping  1 , Dmitry Romanov  5 , Roland W Freudenmann  6 , Robert Christian Wolf  1
Affiliations

Abnormal cerebellar volume in somatic vs. non-somatic delusional disorders

Joshua Krämer et al. Cerebellum Ataxias. .

Abstract

Background: There is abundant evidence for cerebellar involvement in schizophrenia, where the cerebellum has been suggested to contribute to cognitive, affective and motor dysfunction. More recently, specific cerebellar regions have also been associated with psychotic symptoms, particularly with auditory verbal hallucinations. In contrast, little is known about cerebellar contributions to delusions, and even less is known about whether cerebellar involvement differs by delusional content.

Methods: Using structural magnetic resonance imaging at 1.0 T together with cerebellum-optimized segmentation techniques, we investigated gray matter volume (GMV) in 14 patients with somatic-type delusional disorder (S-DD), 18 patients with non-somatic delusional disorder (NS-DD) and 18 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) with persistent non-somatic delusions. A total of 32 healthy controls (HC) were included. Between-group comparisons were adjusted for age, gender, chlorpromazine equivalents and illness duration.

Results: Compared to HC, S-DD patients showed decreased GMV in left lobule VIIIa. In addition, S-DD patients showed decreased GMV in lobule V and increased GMV in bilateral lobule VIIa/crus II compared to NS-DD. Patients with SZ showed increased GMV in right lobule VI and VIIa/crus I compared to HC. Significant differences between HC and NS-DD were not found.

Conclusions: The data support the notion of cerebellar dysfunction in psychotic disorders. Distinct cerebellar deficits, predominantly linked to sensorimotor processing, may be detected in delusional disorders presenting with predominantly somatic content.

Keywords: Cerebellum; Delusional infestation; Delusions; Paranoid; SUIT; Voxel-based morphometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Decreased lobule VIIIa GMV in patients with S-DD compared to HC. p < 0.005 uncorrected for height, k > 602 voxels. b Decreased lobule V GMV in S-DD compared to NS-DD patients. p < 0.005 uncorrected for height, k > 505 voxels. c Increased lobule VIIa/crus II GMV in S-DD compared to NS-DD patients. p < 0.005 uncorrected for height, k > 505 voxels. Shown are results of two-sample t-tests, adjusted for age, gender, CPZ equivalents and disease duration. The color bars represent T-values
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Increased lobule VIIa/crus I GMV in patients with SZ compared to HC. p < 0.005 uncorrected for height, k > 536 voxels. Shown are results of two-sample t-tests, adjusted for age, gender, CPZ equivalents and disease duration. The color bar represents T-values
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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