OBSERVATIONS ON THE HISTOPATHOLOGY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
I. The Cortex
N. W. WINKELMAN M. D.1, and
M. HAROLD BOOK M. D.1
1 The Laboratory of Neuropathology of the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Medicine; the Philadelphia Psychiatric Hospital; and the Norristown State Hospital.
1. Ten selected cases of schizophrenia from a group of 6o have been studied clinically and pathologically with special emphasis on the cortex.
2. Although the gross appearance of the brain was not at all distinctive, the microscopic picture was such as to suggest the diagnosis.
3. The main microscopic findings were: focal and general loss of nerve cells, especially in the anterior half of the brain; the presence of numerous nerve cells showing degenerative changes, such as shrinkage, vacuolization of cytoplasm, "ghost-cells," loss of polarity, and fatty infiltration. A fairly uniform hyperplasia and hypertrophy of macroglia was noted. A diffuse mild subcortical demyelinization was present.
4. There was no involvement of the mesodermal components of the brain.
5. An increasing array of evidence in many related fields is accumulating to bolster the contention that schizophrenia should be included among the "organic" psychoses.
