Caudate volume in offspring of patients with schizophrenia.

Caudate nuclei are smaller in drug-naive people with schizophrenia but larger in antipsychotic-treated patients. In this magnetic resonance imaging study we found volume reduction of right and left caudate by 8.9 and 8.1% respectively in 50 offspring without psychosis of patients with schizophrenia compared with 53 age- and gender-matched controls, providing new evidence that caudate volume reduction may be a trait-related abnormality in schizophrenia.