S (2006) Neurobiological Correlates of Violent Behavior Among Persons With Schizophrenia

Men and women who develop schizophrenia are at in-creased risk, compared with the general population, to en-gage in violence toward others. The reasons for this robust finding remain obscure. We undertook a review of studies comparing neuropsychological test performance, neurolog-ical soft signs, and structural brain images of persons with schizophrenia with and without a history of violence. Our search identified 17 studies. The results are inconsistent and contradictory, mainly due to varying definitions of violence, differences in sample characteristics, and the use of diverse measures to tap the neurobiological correlates of violent behavior. The results suggest, however, that among men with schizophrenia, those who have displayed a stable pat-tern of antisocial and aggressive behavior since childhood, as compared with those with no such history, perform better on neuropsychological tests tapping specific executive func-tions and more poorly on assessments of orbitofrontal func-tions, show fewer neurological soft signs, and display larger reductions in volume of the amygdalae, more structural ab-normalities of the orbitofrontal system, more abnormalities of white matter in the amygdala-orbitofrontal system, and smaller reductions in volumes of the hippocampus. Key words: Schizophrenia/violence/neuropsychology/ neurological soft signs/structural brain imagin