Recent study by Vernon et al. (2012) published on May 15th 2012 in Biological Psychiatry (Impact Factor 8.674- a bit higher than Journal of Czechoslovak Psychology) demonstrated fascinating, yet worrisome effects of psychoactive drugs on brain structure.
Researchers at King´s College London studied rats´ brain structure after exposure to psychotropic drugs via magnetic resonance imaging. Haloperidol (drug used for treating of schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms) or lithium (used for treatment of bipolar disorder or as we call "maniodepression" in Czecho/Slovak) was administered for 8 weeks ("somehow" equivalent to human 5 years- but do now ask how). Results illustrate that chronic treatment of haloperidol led to decrease of gray cortical matter by 6%, while treatment using lithium led to increase in grey matter by 3% (but not rats´ intelligence (which was not tested), just to point out).
However, one has to keep in mind that human etiology of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is complex (the rats in the study which were normal without any symptoms), based on combination of genetics, psychological mechanisms as well as environmental contributions.
Nevertheless, those findings are important (or we believe so) in understanding (if nothing at least) the side-effects of the aforementioned drugs.
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