Positron emission tomography in male violent offenders with schizophrenia

Abstract

The FDG PET brain scans from 31 offenders with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder from a maximum security mental hospital were compared with those of normal controls (N = 6) in terms of relative FDG uptake in a range of regions covering frontal and temporal regions. The patient sample was divided into those who had a history of repetitive violent offending (RVO, N = 17) and those without a repetitive violent history (NRVO, N = 14) according to the violence rating of their pre-admission convictions. Reduced FDG uptake was noted at both the right and left anterior inferior temporal (R and LAIT) regions in NRVOs but only at LAIT in RVOs. NRVOs had significantly lower FDG uptake at RAIT than RVOs. The findings suggest that metabolic changes at AIT may be related to different patterns of violent offending in patients with schizophrenia.