85,86 Can white matter diseases provoke psychosis whatever the age? This is clearly not the case. Patients seem to need to be at least adolescents

to express a psychosis related to WM disorder. Younger patients who present one of the many metabolic WM diseases (Krabbe’s, Pelizaeus-Merzbacher, Alexander’s, and Cockaynes’s diseases, ALD, MLD), are generally not reported to manifest psychotic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical symptoms.59-60 Interestingly, in elderly patients, psychosis with clinical features similar to those of schizophrenia is rare, eg, in Binswanger’s disease. This age prevalence could be related to the cause. However, against such an explanation, early forms of MLD or ALD do not present with psychotic features, as seen in late-onset forms. Why is psychosis age-dependent in white matter diseases? This age dependence is very much a reminder of the risk window for psychosis Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in schizophrenia. Whereas negative symptoms do show that the disease lasts

beyond the 40s, many patients do not present new psychotic symptoms or disease Selleck Apoptosis Compound Library exacerbation. There are reasons Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to support a relationship with dopamine. Indeed, dopamine release rises, from a low level in childhood, to a maximum during adolescence and early adulthood, whereas it slowly declines in the late 30s.87 This dopaminergic dependence may explain why WMrelated psychosis can be well treated by antipsychotics in white matter diseases.60 In other words, disconnection per se may not be enough, as it must occur with a sufficient level of dopamine. However, it could be either an important secondary factor by lowering the threshold for expressing psychosis, or even a requirement for expressing psychotic features on Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical dopamine release. This is in line with the observation that only a minority of normal subjects given amphetamine do become psychotic.88 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical In such rare cases a cofactor such as a subnormal disconnectivity may exist. A final explanation could be that WM diseases weaken cortical control over dopamine release in the striatum (or directly on the ventral tegmental neurons). This is expected

to be the case if the WM lesion is localized between the frontal lobe and the striatum. However, as will be discussed later, frontal WM lesions are more prone to provoking depression than psychosis. Can curing the white matter disease improve psychosis? If this were the case, then it would be a strong argument for a causal role of WM lesions in psychosis. Positive responses come from case reports isothipendyl in two WM diseases: In multiple sclerosis (MS) where two patients with psychotic features resolved their symptoms after a cure of corticoids.89 In normal-pressure hydrocephalus, shunt placement allowed psychosis recovery, from substantial to complete.85,86 Does a specific location of white matter disease provoke psychosis? ALD and MLD are not very informative, since WM anomalies are essentially diffuse and can originate in any part of the brain.