Meta-analysis of postmortem studies of Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology in schizophrenia.

To evaluate the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia who have been treated with neuroleptics have a high rate of Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology. Neuropathological studies indicating the presence or absence of Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology in the postmortem brains of patients with schizophrenia, normal comparison subjects, and comparison subjects who had affective disorder were evaluated with Mantel-Haenszel chi-square and odds ratio analyses. Ten studies with relevant data were reviewed; none of eight with comparisons indicated that Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology was more likely to be found in the brains of patients with schizophrenia than in the brains of comparison subjects. Suggestions that cerebral plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are more common in schizophrenia in association with neuroleptic treatment were not supported.