Brain Size in Schizophrenia

To the Editor.—  We read with great interest the article by Pearlson et al¹ in the August 1989 issue of the Archives and are particularly interested in their report of reduced brain slice area (BSA) in schizophrenics. We are writing to add support to this finding with results from a sample of patients studied in our laboratory. The authors' conclusion that the smaller brain size in schizophrenics is most likely attributable to differences in socioeconomic status is troublesome to us, however, and is discussed further below.Our data were drawn from subjects who had received brain scans on an EMI 1010 computed tomographic scanner (EMI Ltd, England) between 1982 and 1984. Analytic methods have been described previously.^2,3 Brain size was estimated by summing the total intracranial areas of seven contiguous 8-mm sections beginning inferiorly at the lowest section showing the anterior horns of the lateral ventricles. Comparisons were