Cause of schizophrenia identified

Cause of schizophrenia identified

www.theage.com.au

IN A world first that could bring hope to thousands of schizophrenics, Melbourne scientists have discovered that a form of the disease is linked to a lack of certain proteins in the brain's lining.

The breakthrough, by scientists from the Mental Research Health Institute in Parkville, is being compared to the discovery that type 1 and type 2 diabetes were separate diseases requiring different treatments.

"But we have shown that 25 per cent of people who have schizophrenia have lost 80 per cent of a protein in their brain known as muscarinic M1 receptor.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
blog.cleveland.com

This is really great news.

I have a cousin who suffers from this illness and the medications that she is taking has too many side effects and making her lose too much hair, and just doesn't seem to be helping.

I wish the article gave more information about the findings and what natural alternatives can now be explored, but I guess i'll just have to wait.

The genetically engineered mice are important players in science's effort to understand the vast and sometimes subtle influences of serotonin. The brain chemical helps regulate lots of processes, such as sleep, memory, learning and awareness. '___' users' vivid hallucinations occur when that drug blocks serotonin activity, leading some researchers to suggest serotonin helps keep people sane. It's also been implicated in a dizzying array of disorders, including depression, excessive anxiety and aggression, addiction, bulimia, autism, schizophrenia and sudden infant death syndrome.

Source: blog.cleveland.com...

The above is an even better article than the thread article.
And seems more plausible.
Excellent Article by the way in additional news links

Or I don't know, but I hope the thread article is not a push to make it seem as many people have this illness.

www.theage.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

I hope thier right becuase schizophrenia is a devistating illness. I've been living with it for the past 12 years and it's disrtoyed any chance I had for a normal life.

I can't work, I have very few friends, I can't go to school, I get very little enjoyment out of life. All I do is eat and sleep. My life has been so miserable I wish I was never born.

Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve this life. I must have did something bad in a past life or something.

This is indeed an interesting find well worth further study, but the Topic Title is a bit misleading. This discovery is does not equate to the Cause for schizophrenia. It is a symptom. As only 25% have been shown to fit into this model, that leaves out the vast majority of sufferers, and thus is not a cause by definition. The article also mentions "one form" of the illness, which further points to this being a symptom.

SOME people with SOME forms of Schizophrenia have the symptom of lacking certain brain chemistry. In this study, they have identified one more chemical imbalance related to proteins. Great news, and it should lead to better understanding of the illness and eventually potential treatments. What they need to uncover now, is WHY the symptom happens, and how to prevent it.

Often in the medical field causality is improperly linked and held as an absolute. For example: Elevated Cholesterol levels are not necessarily culprit in cardiovascular disease simply because it was found in atherosclerotic plaques. There has been a significant amount of bad information coming out of the cholesterol business, simply because it is a very profitable business. With Cholesterol it is simply a case of guilt by association, which is bad science.

The nature of Schizophrenia is quite complex, and this new discovery will be quite helpful, but it is not the cause.

reply to post by Terapin


Ya I thought the same thing

Did you check out the additional news link?

reply to post by ModernAcademia


The role of seratonin in schizophrenia is still being studied closely. The way in which neuro-transmitters interact is quite important in the study of what goes on in the brains of schizophrenics. Dopamine is another brain chemical that has recieved a great deal of study.

For members who do not have a good grasp of Schizophrenia, here is a link to a good site on the subject:
Schizophrenia Explained

Great find ModernAcademia.

This brings us one step closer to being able to truly help people that have schizophrenia.

Excellent news. My mother suffers from schizophrenia and she has been on a whole range of medications both pharma and alternative. I can't wait to see what else the turn up with this study!

reply to post by wantsome


I personally believe that this life is about suffering and OVERCOMMING.

Perhaps with this breakthrough, you will be given the chance to overcome the illness and start a new life.

I wish you the best!

As a victim of mental illness myself, I think this is great news.

I hope these people find peace

I have an uncle who has schizophrenia,its one of the most terrible things to see..when i first learned about it i was pretty young 14 or 15.Although he had had it for a year or so before that.We were sitting watching the matrix and he kept thinking it was saying *ian*(his name) instead of neo..he looked fine to me at the time but went downstairs grabbed a knife and started accusing everyone of spying on him,threatening to stab people etc etc had to call the police,he was sent to a mental institution for 7/8 months or so.Family members tried to help him for a good 3 years after this but his mental health deterioated and he stopped seeing his mental health worker and taking medication.Right now he's homeless,has a huge scar down the front of his face(from god knows what) and is very very violent.He lives in a town local to me(about three miles away) you see him walking about asking for change,raiding bins etc..its a terrible terrible illness.And there nothing i can do,or family,he has completely lost it in every way imaginable so its hard to see him,but he doesnt even know who i am anymore..completely deatched.My uncle was a bloody smart guy..went to university got all his shiny credentials.Shows you what it can do to a person so this breakthrough is welcomed with open arms.

Originally posted by Solomons
I have an uncle who has schizophrenia,its one of the most terrible things to see..when i first learned about it i was pretty young 14 or 15.Although he had had it for a year or so before that.We were sitting watching the matrix and he kept thinking it was saying *ian*(his name) instead of neo..he looked fine to me at the time but went downstairs grabbed a knife and started accusing everyone of spying on him,threatening to stab people etc etc had to call the police,he was sent to a mental institution for 7/8 months or so.Family members tried to help him for a good 3 years after this but his mental health deterioated and he stopped seeing his mental health worker and taking medication.Right now he's homeless,has a huge scar down the front of his face(from god knows what) and is very very violent.He lives in a town local to me(about three miles away) you see him walking about asking for change,raiding bins etc..its a terrible terrible illness.And there nothing i can do,or family,he has completely lost it in every way imaginable so its hard to see him,but he doesnt even know who i am anymore..completely deatched.My uncle was a bloody smart guy..went to university got all his shiny credentials.Shows you what it can do to a person so this breakthrough is welcomed with open arms.

That is so sad.

people have to remember these people are not monsters, it is not their fault ....

Originally posted by Donnie Darko
That is so sad.

people have to remember these people are not monsters, it is not their fault ....

Ya at face value many people would assume the worst

reply to post by ModernAcademia



The scientists cut very thin sections (14 thousands of a millimetre thick) of the brain tissue to measure the levels of the muscarinic M1 receptor


Type "muscarinic" into google, go to the first link:
(en.wikipedia.org...)

This should be old news to some, unbelievable to most, but factual first and foremost.

Taboo

reply to post by Donnie Darko


I know that..damn im facing alot of mental health problems lately too.It probably sounds mean on the face of it because we have somewhat left him to his own devices..but we really did try just about everything and he is very violent.Its simply a case of not knowing what to do in such circumstances.

This is another piece in the puzzle. There's likely hundreds of causes for schizophrenia. It really is a catch-all for prolonged severe psychosis. If we're going to really figure out schizophrenia, we need to expand our mindset to include an integrative understanding of mental illness.

I believe environmental conditions to be as important, if not more so then genetics. There's definitely genetic propensities, but the expression seems to have several environmental triggers.

Gut dysbiosis has been reported in all patients in some cases. This leads to bacterial/fungus overgrowths, & parasite infestations. This leads to many things which can make an overburdened, highly-toxic body.

It's very interesting to note that schizophrenia rates have climbed 15-20x in the last 200 years. Reports of insanity were about 5/10,000 all throughout history preindustrial revolution, where today its nearly 1/100.

We've got to ask, what changed? Heavy metal exposure in factories. Pollution. Population increases. Social regression. All of these likely contributed to schizophrenia increases.

Another major thing was agricultural manufacturing processes. When grains were first stripped of vital nutrients (niacin), pellagra & schizophrenia rates dramatically increased. It was found that a fraction of schizophrenics who took small doses of niacin supplement fully recovered. This lead to the enrichment of flour with some of it's lost b-vitamins. Pellegra & schizophrenia rates dropped accordingly.

Later it was found that even more schizophrenics suffered from a sub-clinical (non-lethal) form of pellegra. This group needed higher doses to return to normal health. As shown by doctor Abram Hoffer, most schizophrenics recover when given high dose vitamin-c & niacin with each meal.

A schizophrenic suffers from severe toxic overload. Vitamin-c helps on many fronts, the most universal acting as an antioxidant helping to detox the body. Niacin is a very powerful antifungal & antibiotic. From my understanding, schizophrenics probably suffer from a chronic & systemic microbial infection. I think niacin is so deficient because it's used to treat the disease.

Niacin is needed to convert tryptophan into serotonin. While nuerotransmitter "malfunctions" are definitely happening, I think this is mostly secondary causes.

I stand by the conviction that the body, when given what it needs, repairs itself accordingly. All intelligent organizations seek homeostasis. Some people seem to require more nutrients than others to treat their current internal environment from external environmental & genetic factors.

[edit on 17-5-2009 by unityemissions]

My mother and brother both suffer from schizophrenia. The medication that the doctors feed them doesn't relieve their suffering but only changes it. Having lived around schizophrenia my entire life, I tend to believe that my mother and brother suffer spiritually. However, our culture doesn't like blaming mental illness on spiritual conflicts because its 'unscientific.'

Therefore, in an attempt to be 'scientific', I have been studying the Gestalt 'field theory' that suggests that the mind is an electromagnetic field of sorts. Also, some of the threads on ATS about NDE suggest that the mind is not a transmitter of consciousness but rather a receiver. The fact that people have and retain experiences after death suggests that consciousness exists separate from the body, as does the 'field theory'. These theories are interesting because they suggest that the composition of our brains (and related mental illnesses) are effects of consciousness rather than causes. Perhaps we are actually responsible for our actions, mental illness or not, if our choices affect the composition of our brain rather than visa versa.

Nevertheless I believe stage style psychology “exorcisms” could do an invaluable service (with power as greater or greater than most psychiatric drugs) if individuals recovering from certain mental illnesses (schizophrenia-depression being a prime example) were informed of their potential value.

www.gestalt.org...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

To sum up my opinion, denying that there is a spiritual aspect to mental illness isn't helping anybody. Stuffing people with antipsychotics while ignoring spirituality just perpetuates their problems. We aren't just flesh and blood. We are spiritual beings. I tend to believe that we can really help people if we start addressing the interplay of spirituality with physiology in mental illness.

Although I would love to excuse my mother and brother for their actions, I cannot. I have witnessed them make too many conscious, self-aware, however conflicted, decisions for me to be able to reasonably absolve them from responsibility for the despair that they find themselves in. I actually wonder if their torment (schizophrenia) is just a natural result of continually choosing wickedness time and time again. I realize that some people aren't going appreciate the idea of being responsible for their actions and associated mental illnesses but perhaps that's the problem. Perhaps the cause of schizophrenia and related chemical imbalances is negation? denying what they know to be right by choosing wrong? Perhaps the lack of certain proteins in the brain's lining is a physical manifestation of double-mindedness.

[edit on 17-5-2009 by checkers]

Mentall illness or otherwise "depraved minds", possibly schizophrenia and/or psychosis, mentioned in the Bible. Ayervedic medicine, as well as, other religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism also refer to the spiritual realm's influence on mental health:

Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Mat 17:15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

Mark 5:2-20 ...there met him [Jesus] out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand) and were choked in the sea.

[edit on 17-5-2009 by checkers]

reply to post by ModernAcademia


S and F for you my friend. I do not have schizophrenia, although most of my friends think I am crazy, I honestly believe I am blessed with enough proteins, but I am borderline. I can understand everything that schizophrenics go through because I have the same kind of thoughts, but I also have a calming protocol that is, to this point in my life, ironclad.

I can understand everything that schizophrenics go through because I have the same kind of thoughts, but I also have a calming protocol that is, to this point in my life, ironclad.

Will you please consider sharing your calming protocol with us?

I would like to add that living with schizophrenics causes me to really examine my own thoughts and actions. This causes me to believe that treatments such as rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) may help some people gain a sense of control over their thoughts. My mental health studies teach me that a sense of control can go a long way toward helping schizophrenics.

Perhaps low self esteem and insecurity leave some people open to spiritual conflict. REBT could help those people examine and control their thoughts and associated actions and, therefore, resolve inner conflict.

Perhaps insecurity changes the electromagnetic Gestalt field theory of the brain causing it to be more susceptible to negative energy...addressing the thoughts that disrupt the field may heal the body...or visa versa, address the negative energy as exocists do or othewise as the Bible claims that Jesus did.

For those negating the existence of a spiritual realm that influences mental health, I recommend reviewing ATS's Paranormal board:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's very interesting to note that schizophrenia rates have climbed 15-20x in the last 200 years. Reports of insanity were about 5/10,000 all throughout history preindustrial revolution, where today its nearly 1/100.

People throughout history typically blamed mental illness on evil spirits and addressed it accordingly. Maybe mental illness has been more prevalent in the last 200 years because of the emergence of science and associated rejection of spirituality. Aside from that though, almost anyone can be diagnosed with a mental illness using the current version of the DSM-IV. We may have higher statistics simply because we have more awareness.

[edit on 17-5-2009 by checkers]