PARIS, December 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A hi-tech scanner may give early warning to people who are at high risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses, according to a study published online on Tuesday, December 10, by The Lancet, the British medical publication.

Psychiatrists recruited 75 people deemed to be at high risk of psychotic disorders and used a magnetic resonance imaging scanner (MRI) to take a cross-sectional view of their brains, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

After a year, 23 had shown psychotic symptoms and 52 did not.

The volunteers were then scanned again, and the images were compared with those taken at the start of the study.

Those who went on to develop the disorder were found to have significantly less gray matter in key parts of the brain compared to the majority who remained healthy.

The difference was noted in the right-sided temporal and frontal lobe regions, which are associated with attention, memory, emotion and social behavior.

Previous studies have already detected these kind of abnormalities among schizophrenics.

But because the studies were carried out after a psychotic episode, it was unclear whether the abnormalities predated the onset of the illness or changed during its course.

The study was led by Christos Pantelis from the University of Melbourne and Mental Health Research Institute, Australia.

Doctors at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and Cambridge University also took part.

Pantelis said the discovery raises hopes of developing MRI or a similar technique as a diagnostic tool for people at high risk from schizophrenia.

At present, doctors usually provide medication and counseling when there is proof of a psychotic disorder.

However, growing evidence suggests the longer the delay before starting treatment, the poorer the outcome, he said.

“Our data suggest that treating high-risk individuals before the onset of psychosis might minimize the brain changes we observed, and may even prevent the illness developing.”

Schizophrenia is a severe brain disease characterized by hallucinations and delusions that give a distorted view of reality.

It is not a Jekyll-and-Hyde condition of split personality.

The symptoms can vary widely, but many sufferers hear internal voices, believe that other people are reading their minds or are plotting to harm them or control their thoughts.

They may appear confused, manic or emotionally stunted.