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Although the
researchers were quick to attribute these findings to the patients’
“underlying” condition (schizophrenia), it is important to appreciate the
study design. All of these teenagers
had failed at least two previous trials of antipsychotics prior to the first
brain scan. In their publication,
Thompson et al did not divulge details about the age-of-onset, duration, or
doses of past pharmaceuticals.
Nevertheless, the fact that these exposures had occurred prior to age
14 makes it difficult to accept the researchers’ conclusion that the observed
abnormalities were not the result of prepubertal exposures to neurotoxins.
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