Predicting treatment-resistant schizophrenia can help initiate appropriate treatment early. While nigrostriatal hyperdopaminergic function is involved in schizophrenia pathology, antipsychotic nonresponders do not display increased dopamine function. Based on this evidence, researchers have investigated whether neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI) can identify treatment resistance in 79 patients with a first psychotic episode, compared to 20 healthy individuals. In the study, 15 patients were identified as nonresponders and 47 patients as responders.
The NM-MRI signals were significantly lower in nonresponders and healthy controls than in responders, indicating lower dopamine function. Additionally, the NM-MRI signal in patients remained unchanged over six months. These findings suggest that the NM-MRI has the potential to be a marker to predict treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Can…
