Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:861-864
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Alpha frequency in schizophrenia: an association with enlarged cerebral ventricles
CN Karson, R Coppola and DG Daniel
Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC 20032.
Low alpha frequency (less than 10.2 Hz) occurred more frequently in
medication-free schizophrenic patients than in normal control subjects, as
determined by quantitative EEG analysis. Furthermore, those patients with
low alpha frequency had significantly larger lateral ventricles, as
measured by CT scan, than did other schizophrenic patients (mean +/- SD
ventricle-brain ratios = 9.8 +/- 1.9 versus 5.0 +/- 2.4; p less than 0.01).
This finding suggests the existence of a relationship between cerebral
structural pathology and the alpha rhythm that may be based on involvement
of alpha-generating structures which border the cerebral ventricles. Future
EEG studies of schizophrenia may resolve these questions in the context of
other brain findings.
