Archive for the ‘Schizophrenia’ Category
Schizophrenia Genetic Sign
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011About one in a hundred people worldwide suffer from schizophrenia. Now neuroscientists may have found a gene variation that predisposes people to this brain disease. As this ScienCentral News video reports, it could lead to genetically targeted drugs for schizophrenia.
Schizophrenic Mice
Presently, schizophrenia affects 2.5 million Americans, and neuroscientists believe that this devastating brain disease is caused by problems with multiple genes. Now they are looking at genetically altered mice to help uncover those problematic genes.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studied genetically altered mice that showed symptoms of schizophrenia. The mice were engineered to lack a protein called calcineurin.
Schizophrenia's Path to Laboratory Medicine
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011Abstract
Over two million Americans are afflicted with schizophrenia, a debilitating mental health disorder with a unique symptomatic and epidemiological profile. Genomics studies have hinted towards candidate schizophrenia susceptibility chromosomal loci and genes. Modern proteomic tools, particularly mass spectrometry and expression scanning, aim to identify both pathogenic-revealing and diagnostically significant biomarkers. Only a few studies on basic proteomics have been conducted for psychiatric disorders relative to the plethora of cancer specific experiments. One such proteomic utility enables the discovery of proteins and biological marker fingerprinting profiling techniques (SELDI-TOF-MS), and then subjects them to tandem mass spectrometric fragmentation and de novo protein sequencing (MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS) for the accurate identification and characterization of the proteins. Such utilities can explain the pathogenesis of neuro-psychiatric disease, provide more objective testing methods, and further demonstrate a biological basis to mental illness. Although clinical proteomics in schizophrenia have yet to reveal a biomarker with diagnostic specificity, methods that better characterize the disorder using endophenotypes can advance findings. Schizophrenia biomarkers could potentially revolutionize its psychopharmacology, changing it into a more hypothesis and genomic/proteomic-driven science.
Schizophrenia proteomics: biomarkers on the path to laboratory medicine?
Affecting nearly 1% of the world’s population, schizophrenia is marked by chronic psychosis and social, occupational, behavioral, and cognitive impairment. This debilitating psychiatric disorder requires a disproportionate share of medical resources due to its early onset and chronic and severe nature. Schizophrenia is a lifelong disorder that usually manifests after puberty and before 25 years of age, with equal risks across gender. The illness is episodic and places the sufferer at an increased risk of suicide.
Introduction to Schizophrenia (3)
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Schizophrenia is one of the most chronic and disabling of the major mental illnesses. It is a highly complex condition, and scientists are not even sure if it is one disorder, or a range of disorders, with different causes.
Approximately one per cent of the population develop schizophrenia during their lives. Men and women are affected equally.
Schizophrenia is not, as is commonly thought, split personality.
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is such a complex condition that few generalisations hold true for all people diagnosed as schizophrenic.
People with acute schizophrenia may experience psychotic symptoms when they are completely unable to separate reality from unreal experiences. They may view the world as highly distorted, changeable and lacking reliable landmarks.
Some patients may only have one psychotic episode, and others may have many episodes during a lifetime, but lead relatively normal lives during interim periods.
Introduction to Schizophrenia (2)
Monday, October 24th, 2011Aetiology
As schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder, it likely results from the interplay of genetic, behavioural, developmental and other factors. The exact cause of this group of illnesses is not known but stress, trauma and viral infection at an early age are factors thought to be involved.
Schizophrenia can run in families and it is likely that the disease has a genetic component – if one twin of an identical pair has schizophrenia, there is a 46% chance that the other twin will also suffer from a schizophrenic disorder. It is not known how many genes are involved or how the genetic predisposition is transmitted. In addition, recent evidence suggests that schizophrenia may result when neurons neurons in the brain form inappropriate connections during foetal development. It may be that an intrauterine starvation or infection causes such inappropriate connections to form and these may lie dormant until puberty when substantial neuron reorganisation occurs in the brain. Identification of specific genes involved in the development of schizophrenia will provide important clues as to what goes wrong in the brains of people with the disease and this will guide the development of improved treatments.
Stress imposed by life events or family circumstances appears to be an important external event associated with schizophrenia. The onset of illness is often associated with a distressful period in life and it may be that stress can trigger the onset of illness in those people with a genetic predisposition to the disease.
Introduction to Schizophrenia
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011Causes
Schizophrenia is thought to be caused by an imbalance of chemicals — serotonin and dopamine — that are found in the brain. The condition is characterized by positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, speaking, and behavior. Negative symptoms include lack of emotion, lack of energy, and lack of motivation. The specific cause of Schizophrenia is not yet known, although some research suggests there is a genetic or hereditary factor.
There is nothing specifically that someone does to “get” Schizophrenia, nor is it anyone’s fault. Schizophrenia is a disease like other diseases that simply occur in certain people. There is some research that suggests Schizophrenia may run in families.
Recovery could be hindered by Mind Drugs
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011he movie A Beautiful Mind, nominated for eight Academy Awards, has brought welcome attention to the fact that people can and do recover from schizophrenia, a severely disabling disorder that affects about one in 100 Americans. Unfortunately, the film fabricates a critical detail of John Nash’s recovery and in so doing, obscures a question that should concern us all: Do the medications we use to treat schizophrenia promote long-term recovery — or hinder it?
In the movie, Nash — just before he receives a Nobel Prize — speaks of taking “newer medications.” The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has praised the film’s director, Ron Howard, for showing the “vital role of medication” in Nash’s recovery. But as Sylvia Nasar notes in her biography of Nash, on which the movie is loosely based, this brilliant mathematician stopped taking anti-psychotic drugs in 1970 and slowly recovered over two decades. Nasar concluded that Nash’s refusal to take drugs “may have been fortunate” because their deleterious effects “would have made his gentle re-entry into the world of mathematics a near impossibility.”
Early Treatment of Schizophrenia is very Important
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011Sadly, a very common misconception in families of people with schizophrenia is the though that “if we do nothing, maybe it will get better – maybe its just a phase.” The truth is, however, that this is typically the worse thing that can be done if the person does have schizophrenia, and greatly increases the probablity that the person will suffer much more permanent damage than if treated quickly. Schizophrenia is generally recognized now as a disease of the brain (with significant data that supports the belief that it is a neurodevelopment problem in the brain) in which the brain is physically damaged (see images of brain with schizophrenia), and unfortunately the noticable symptoms of schizophrenia are usually quite late in the disease process. Dr. Herbert Y. Meltzer, a professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University and an expert on schizophrenia, has said, “the psychosis part of schizophrenia is almost a late stage in the evolution of the disease process.” and that, “the key message is that this is a neurodevelopmental disorder and that changes in memory, learning, attention and executive decision-making precede the experience of the psychosis.”
Individuals who are at risk for developing a psychotic illness usually experience mental and emotional changes before more serious symptoms develop. These early signs are often non-specific, sometimes, even barely noticeable. The unexpected decline in a person’s usual way of functioning or relating to others is the most common indicator of an early sign of risk. This early period is called the “prodromal” period (or Prodrome) by psychiatrists.
Schizophrenia from Scientific Viewpoint
Sunday, May 30th, 2010Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects the ability to recognize between the real and unreal facts of life. The most common symptom of schizophrenia is auditory hallucinations. This disorder is said to affect the cognition, however there are other factors that are being studied which include the capacity of the disorder to affect the behavior and emotions of the patient as well.
A diagnosis of schizophrenia is done by a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist after understanding the problems and symptoms of the patient and taking proper tests of the normal functions of the body. Schizophrenia is considered to be a mental disorder and therefore there is no biological tests conducted to find any kind of differences in the physical level of the patient, although there is a lot of research that suggests that genetic aspects may have a lot to do with the disease itself and also environmental and social issues can play a very important role in the outcome of this disorder.