Regional cerebral blood flow in schizophrenia.

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured via xenon133 inhalation technique in 23 patients with schizophrenia and 18 age- and sex-matched controls. The mean blood flow to both hemispheres was found to be lower for the patients. The patients and their controls did not differ on interhemispheric differences in blood flow. There were no differences in rCBF between medicated and unmedicated, subchronic and chronic, and paranoid and nonparanoid patients. Hallucinations were associated with reduced blood flow to several postcentral regions.