SynthesisNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2022
White-matter free-water diffusion MRI in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of Theory of Mind psychotherapy on early-onset schizophrenia: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNTrial
- Psychosocial Interventions, Recovery, and Mediating Mechanisms in Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Putative glymphatic dysfunction links extracellular fluid dysregulation to white matter degeneration and clinical impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Reproducibility and Reliability of Free-Water-Corrected Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Brain: Revisited.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- 40 Years of diffusion MRI in the brain: From history to emerging frontiers.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Review
- Differential effect of cannabis use and antipsychotic medication on extracellular free-water in the brain of individuals with early psychosis and controls.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Multimodal neuroimaging alterations in schizophrenia model rats and the modulatory effects of risperidone: a pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- White matter free water and depressive symptoms in medication-free depressed adolescents: moderation by peripheral inflammation.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Impact of schizophrenia-associated risk genes on brain functional networks and executive deficits: a study of individuals with schizophrenia and genetic high risk.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- White Matter Abnormalities and Cognition in Aging and Alzheimer Disease.JAMA neurology · 2025Article
- Microstructural imaging of brain changes in schizophrenia via quantitative T1 (qT1): a preliminary comparison of two acquisition protocols.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Article
- White matter microstructure alterations in early psychosis and schizophrenia.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- The MR neuroimaging protocol for the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Transcallosal white matter and cortical gray matter variations in autistic adults aged 30-73 years.Molecular autism · 2025Article
- Exploratory MIA study: multimodal magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of rat offspring induced by maternal Poly(I:C) exposure during pregnancy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- A narrative literature review of white matter microstructure in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.Psychoradiology · 2025Review
- Comparative Analysis of Corpus Callosum Lipidome and Transcriptome in Schizophrenia and Healthy Brain.Consortium psychiatricum · 2025Article
- Elevated Extracellular Free Water in the Brain Predicts Clinical Improvement in First-Episode Psychosis.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- White matter lipidome alterations in the schizophrenia brain.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- NIMH perspectives on future directions in neuroimaging for mental health.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
White-matter abnormalities, including increases in extracellular free-water, are implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Recent advances in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enable free-water levels to be indexed. However, the brain levels in patients with schizophrenia have not yet been systematically investigated. We aimed to meta-analyse white-matter free-water levels in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy volunteers. We performed a literature search in EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO databases. Diffusion MRI studies reporting free-water in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls were included. We investigated the effect of demographic variables, illness duration, chlorpromazine equivalents of antipsychotic medication, type of scanner, and clinical symptoms severity on free-water measures. Ten studies, including five of first episode of psychosis have investigated free-water levels in schizophrenia, with significantly higher levels reported in whole-brain and specific brain regions (including corona radiata, internal capsule, superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculus, cingulum bundle, and corpus callosum). Six studies, including a total of 614 participants met the inclusion criteria for quantitative analysis. Whole-brain free-water levels were significantly higher in patients relative to healthy volunteers (Hedge's g = 0.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.07-0.69, p = 0.02). Sex moderated this effect, such that smaller effects were seen in samples with more females (z = -2.54, p < 0.05), but antipsychotic dose, illness duration and symptom severity did not. Patients with schizophrenia have increased free-water compared to healthy volunteers. Future studies are necessary to determine the pathological sources of increased free-water, and its relationship with illness duration and severity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.