schizophrenic.com

Schizophrenia and Glutamate Receptors

Christopher Taylor — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:12:07 +0000

Adjunctive lithium and anticonvulsants are still used for the treatment of schizophrenia, but one researcher is hoping that pioneering work with glutamate receptors will offer a more effective and safer alternative. Dr. Leslie Citrome spoke recently at a psychopharmocology conference sponsored by the Nevada Psychiatric Association. He outlined work that is being done on several glutamate agents and suggested that new treatments could be commonly available in as little as five years.

As the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the human nervous system, glutamate is distributed widely and affects numerous subsystems, especially the dopamine release network. Studies have shown that antagonizing glutamate receptors can cause greater severity of positive and cognitive symptoms in persons with schizophrenia and can in fact cause schizophrenia-like symptoms in healthy individuals.

There are two types of glutamate receptors, ionotropic and metabotropic, which work separately and in tandem to regulate gene activation and dopamine levels. The former relies upon ion channels, while the latter uses proteins and second-level chemical transmitters. Each system has a different working time and relies upon subtly different means of activation.

The most promising areas of research, say Citrome, are those focusing on N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), an ionotropic receptor. One recent trial involving 300 participants showed an improvement in negative symptoms from ten percent to 40 percent when patients' standard antipsychotic regimen was supplemented with NMDA agonists. Eli Lilly is also in phase II and III testing with a metabotropic agent.

Source: Clinical Psychiatry News

Computer Training to Aid Schizophrenics' Awareness of Reality

Christopher Taylor — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:48:07 +0000

Sixteen weeks of cognitive reconditioning using specially-designed computer software can improve social functions for months following the treatment, drastically improving the quality of life for schizophrenia sufferers, says a study recently published in the journal Neuron.

The software is designed to improve a patient's "reality monitoring" faculties. These are the cognitive abilities that let a healthy person distinguish between what is real and what is an inner construction. While currently available pharmaceutical therapies are effective at treating clinical symptoms, they are not designed to address these cognitive deficiencies. The computer program, therefore, is designed to be a supplement to traditional treatments.

To test the program's effectiveness, researchers had volunteers take 80 hours of intensive training over 16 weeks. When compared to assessments taken before the trial, participants' reality monitoring abilities following the experimental period were significantly improved. Additionally, participants saw an increase in the activation of the medial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain crucial for reality monitoring and often implicated in neuro-psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia.

The program targets a wide range of mental processes, and is unique in that it targets low-level perception as strongly as working memory and social functions. In addition to affecting the widest array of mental processes, this approach demostrates that even the most deeply rooted impairments can respond positively to treatment that properly targets them.

Source: University of California, San Francisco

Disabled and on Parent's Insurance Plan

brybuckeye — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:38:05 +0000

Can anyone comment or offer some insight; can a disabled adult (30 years old) be claimed on their parents (does not live with them) health insurance plan? I realize insurance companies are different in policy, but would like to hear if anyone has raised this question. The disabled person has schizophrenia, receiving SSI, medicare, but no perscription plan to cover medication. Peviously, the county he lived in had mental health assistance (meds were fraction of total price) now, in a county without any local help, his medication costs more than his monthy income.

So,the thought is, if he can get on a parent's health insurance plan as a disabled person, the medication will be affordable.

Sorry for rambling, and thank you for any feedback.

Cats May Indirectly Cause Mental Illness

Christopher Taylor — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:03:19 +0000

According to a professor at Charles University in Prague, cat feces carries a parasite that can alter a person's mental state and behavior, and it's a parasite that has already infected millions of unwitting humans.

Jaroslav Flegr is a biology professor specializing in the effects of toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite that causes the disease toxoplasmosis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 60 million people carry the disease without even knowing it. Flegr believes that number is much, much higher—up to a third of the world's population may be infected, he says.

While the old and the very young may be at risk from the disease, most people only experience a slight flu-like fever when first infected. Flegr says, though, that the disease subtly manipulates its host to alter certain behaviors. Among men, for example, increased suspicion might be a symptom, while women tend to become friendlier. These alterations may be human manifestations of changes designed for rats. Infected rats, rather than fearing cats as they should, become drawn to a cat's odor, increasing the chances of the parasite making its way into the cat, it's preferred host.

Humans can get the disease by cleaning a dirty litter box, but also by eating raw or undercooked meat, vegetables grown in infected soil, or through blood transfusions or organ transplants. In addition to its milder effects, in rare cases toxoplasmosis can cause schizophrenia-like symptoms, including psychosis and serious behavioral changes.

Flegr says his aim is to make people more aware of how the disease is transmitted and to teach them to more readily recognize its symptoms.

Source: Charles University, Prague

Warning Signs of Bullying

Schizophrenic.com Staff — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:27:16 +0000

Learn about warning signs if children to see if they are being bullied

if you are a schitzophrenic in england united kingdom

stuart1442 — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:28:20 +0000

is it legal for you to work on a building site?

Schizophrenia, Other Diseases May Respond to Magnetic Stimulation

Christopher Taylor — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:56:13 +0000

Multinational research from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in France is lending support to the practice of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for the treatment of epilepsy, schizophrenia, stroke, and Parkinson's disease.

In experimental mice trials, UWA scientists showed that magnetic fields can induce electrical responses in the brain, triggering muscle contractions in predictable parts of the body. This technique has long been used to map out which portions of the brains of stroke victims are still active and functional. In further testing, repeated pulses seem to have effects that persist even after the removal of the magnetic field.

The UWA experiments used a small copper coil about the size of a mouse's head to deliver magnetic pulses from a generator through the skull into the brain. The mice used were "knockout mice", meaning they lack the molecules ephrin-A2 and ephrin-A5. These molecules direct the formation of proper axon connections during the brain's development. Without the molecules, neurons often form incorrectly. This experiment was not meant to simulate any particular human condition, but it does show the efficacy of rTMS for isolating and identifying poorly connected neurons.

Among the mice exposed to repeated rTMS, most experienced a roughly 50 percent drop in neuronal misfirings. Subsequent behavior confirmed this increase in brain function. The next step, say the researchers, is to conduct therapeutic trials on specific human disorders. rTMS trials have been successfully conducted on human depression patients.

Source: Science Network Western Australia

New Neurochemical Being Called "Master Regulator Molecule" for Schizophrenia

Christopher Taylor — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:56:35 +0000

Neurologically, schizophrenia is characterized by relatively minor abnormalities across a wide range of brain structures and pathways. Additionally, as much seems dependent on how genes are expressed as on the genes themselves. All of this has made it very difficult for researchers to pinpoint a single chemical cause or marker for the disease. Now, a group from the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami asserts that they have found just such a chemical, and that it will change the way we understand the disease.

Called microRNA-132 (miR-132), the molecule in question regulates a large set of genes, and governs how they are expressed both in embryonic development and in the adult brain. The Miller team found altered levels of miR-132 in the frontal region of the cortex of schizophrenia patients—an area associated with symptoms such as hallucinations, paranoia, and psychosis.

Recent trends in neuroscientific research have highlighted the importance of so-called epigenetic mechanisms in determining how our DNA translates into the diseases which afflict us. It is these mechanisms that explain why one person with a particular gene mutation will develop a disease and someone else with the same mutation will not. By regulating hundreds or thousands of genes, each one of humanity's roughly 1,000 microRNAs can completely alter a person's susceptibility to certain diseases. Of the 850 microRNAs tested by the Miller school group, only miR-132 levels had any correlation to the presence of schizophrenia. Additionally, that microRNA controls over ten percent of genes previously linked to abnormal brain development in schizophrenics.

Source: Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami

Depression Blood Test?

Schizophrenic.com Staff — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:26:21 +0000

Researchers are working on a blood test to test for depression

Learning from Others Uses Different Parts of the Brain

Christopher Taylor — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:13:18 +0000

In what is being called the first study of its kind, University of Illinois researchers have produced brain images that show people's brains react differently when competing against others than when they play against themselves. Brain activity while playing a solitaire card game, for example, will be different than during a game of hearts against others.

While previous studies have tended to focus on the process of learning from one's own actions and adapting that knowledge to the game, the Illinois study is the first to apply computational analysis to the mental models we all make of other people's behavior. The success of this computational method has implications for the detection and treatment of a host of psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease.

In the study, functional magnetic resonance imaging tracked neural activity while volunteers played Patent Race, a game in which each participant tries to invest more than his opponent while minimizing losses. Played out over several turns or wagers, the game encourages strategic analysis of the opponents' actions, which are in turn based on their own strategic analyses.

Activity was strongest in the ventral striatum, a part of the basal ganglia and an area long known to be associated with reinforcement learning—the kind that comes from individual learning. This was the first indication anyone had that the area was also involved in so-called "belief learning, or learning from the actions of others. Belief learning also activated regions associated with error processing and social/emotional learning.

Among the circuits identified by the study are several that are often affected by schizophrenia and other mental disorders. By uncovering the relationships between circuits, the researchers hope to improve medicine's ability to address those illnesses.

Source: University of Illinois