Table 2.

Certainty in schizophrenia neuropathology

Macroscopic findings	Strength of evidence
Enlarged lateral and third ventricles	shown by meta-analysis
Decreased cortical volume	shown by meta-analysis
The above changes present in first-episode patients	strong
Disproportionate volume loss from temporal lobe (incl. hippocampus)	strong
Decreased thalamic volume	good
Cortical volume loss affects grey rather than white matter	good
Enlarged basal ganglia secondary to antipsychotic medication	moderate
Histological findings
Absence of gliosis as an intrinsic feature	good
Smaller cortical and hippocampal neurons	good
Fewer neurons in dorsal thalamus	good
Reduced synaptic and dendritic markers in hippocampus	good
Maldistribution of white matter neurons	moderate
Miscellaneous
Alzheimer’s disease is not more common in schizophrenia	Shown by meta-analysis
(Modified from Harrison, 199923)