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.

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!

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

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]

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]