الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Objectives: Schizophrenia is a disabling mental disorder that affects close to 1% of the general population. It is comprised of a group of closely related symptoms characterized by particular types of disordered effects, behaviors, and thinking patterns. Schizophrenia is a progressive and chronic brain disorder that if detected early may be treated in a rigorous manner so that the severe consequences of its chronicity are attenuated. Aim of the study: Our study aimed to detect if there is structural and/ or abnormalities in the cerebellum of schizophrenic patients, and if present, to determine the extent and variations of these abnormalities, and identify the relations of these abnormalities with the different clinical variables among the patients with particular concern of cognitive functions, prominent symptoms and neurological soft signs. Methods: This study had cross-sectional and prospective parts. It was conducted in Kuwait psychological medicine hospital, the study compared between the control group and the patients at first episode and after six months of treatment in the relation between attention and memory as expressive of cognition and differences in the neuroimaging findings by MRI. Study group: that includes 30 Schizophrenia patients from in-patients and outpatient clinics. All patients fulfilled the criteria of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth division, Text Revised (DSM-IV-TR). Two other psychiatrists did the reconfirmation of the diagnosis. Control group: that includes 30 normal subjects matched for age, sex, education level, and nationality. The control subjects do not have psychiatric disorder either past or present, and do not have any family history of psychiatric disorders either. The control group was subjected to the psychometric and the neuroimaging assessments after giving their consent. Results: The findings of our study are consistent with previous studies relating cerebellar abnormality to schizophrenia; nonetheless the clear difference in cerebellar volume between patients and normal subjects might be considered an additional support to the neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia. The impaired cognition in patients at first episode and its significant improvement after treatment goes in line with the effect of schizophrenia on cognition rather than the side effect of antipsychotic drugs. The grey matter is more demonstrative of the impairment of cognition and of decreased neuronal activity in our study in other previous studies irrespective to the part of the brain being studied. Conclusions: The volume of the cerebellum is significantly smaller in patients than it is in the control group. There is less grey matter in the cerebellum of patients in both the first episode and follow-up than the control group. The white matter intensity is insignificant when patients were compared to control group. The active magnitude of neuronal activity is higher in first episode patients when compared to the control group and to the records of their own after treatment for six months.