Gene mutation may be key to schizophrenia

Gene mutation may be key to schizophrenia
Mutation hinders communication between parts of brain, mouse study found
By JoAnne Allen
Reuters
updated 3:55 p.m. ET, Wed., March. 31, 2010

WASHINGTON - A genetic mutation linked to schizophrenia appears to rupture communication between the two areas of the brain believed to be responsible for memory and may be an underlying cause of the brain disorder, U.S. researchers suggested in a study published on Wednesday.

The study found that a genetic mutation, known as 22q11 deletion and common in schizophrenia patients, hinders communication between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, the researchers wrote in the online edition of the journal Nature.

"What we're showing here is that this particular genetic mutation disrupts the communication between these two brain regions and thereby causes the problems with cognition," Dr. Joshua Gordon of Columbia University in New York said in a telephone interview.

"This is the first step in identifying ... what's wrong here in these brain regions, and with a little bit more understanding, then we can imagine being able to design therapies that help the two brain regions talk to each other," Gordon said.

Schizophrenia, characterized by hallucinations, delusions and disordered thinking, is far more common in men than in women and is usually diagnosed in late adolescence or early adulthood. It affects around an estimated one in 100 people.

more:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Marijuna is the leading cause in schizophrenia in teens


"Experts estimate that between 8% and 13% of all schizophrenia cases are linked to marijuna / cannabis use during teen years"

www.schizophrenia.com...

Thats too simple an answer though, because there's different types of schizophrenia. I believe colloquial "type I" would fall in to this genetic category, which is extremely similar in all aspects to '___', where as the "type II" seems to me to be more a sort of mental retardation, more likely frombrain damage/deformity.

And of course theres catatonic schizophrenia, as well as disorganised schizophrenia, and paranoid schizophrenia, this article seems to be about disorganised particularly Id say. Though it could effect many symptoms of all types.

Its figured to be a neurotransmitter problem (uptaking dopamine TOO efficiently) and hopefully they find a strong link! Schizophrenics suffer a lot in society.


reply to post by sv_gravity 800

................................
Reread your own article. Seriously.

Cannabis / Marijuana (and other street drugs) Have Been Linked to Significant Increases in a Person's Risk for Schizophrenia

That means it is CORRELATED and NOT anywhere near a leading cause of schizophrenia.

As well as parental neglect, poverty, low learning stimuli etc. They correlate they ARE NOT CAUSES.

600%(6x) is quite interesting though as I just said above it is related to dopamine uptake. Nonetheless doing drugs does not (necessarily) make you schizophrenic, as the link said it correlates to increased risk. Like driving a car leads to increased risk of car accident.

reply to post by Pauligirl


the mutation of 22q11 huh

well that fits... as the 22 & 11 are significan power numbers in numberologu relating to ones 'Name' and personality...

i'm a known, diagnosed schizophrenic for more years i can recall,
and i have the powerful numbers 11 and 22 in all of my numberology constructions... the lower case 'q' between the power numbers '11' & '22' might also be significant... let me dwell &/or cipher on that


hey thanks,

Originally posted by sv_gravity 800
Marijuna is the leading cause in schizophrenia in teens


"Experts estimate that between 8% and 13% of all schizophrenia cases are linked to marijuna / cannabis use during teen years"

www.schizophrenia.com...

That’s a new one to me, so I decided to look it up and found this:
norml.org...
Review: Supposed Marijuana And Schizophrenia Link "Overstated"
it’s by the pro-pot people, but it does link to this:
www3.interscience.wiley.com...

How ideology shapes the evidence and the policy: what do we know about cannabis use and what should we do?
John Macleod & Matthew Hickman
Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Correspondence to Matthew Hickman, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Whatley Road, Bristol B58 2PS, UK.E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright Journal compilation c 2010 Society for the Study of Addiction
KEYWORDS
Cannabis • evidence • public health • schizophrenia
ABSTRACT

In the United Kingdom, as in many places, cannabis use is considered substantially within a criminal justice rather than a public health paradigm with prevention policy embodied in the Misuse of Drugs Act. In 2002 the maximum custodial sentence tariff for cannabis possession under the Act was reduced from 5 to 2 years. Vigorous and vociferous public debate followed this decision, centred principally on the question of whether cannabis use caused schizophrenia. It was suggested that new and compelling evidence supporting this hypothesis had emerged since the re-classification decision was made, meaning that the decision should be reconsidered. The re-classification decision was reversed in 2008. We consider whether the strength of evidence on the psychological harms of cannabis has changed substantially and discuss the factors that may have influenced recent public discourse and policy decisions. We also consider evidence for other harms of cannabis use and public health implications of preventing cannabis use. We conclude that the strongest evidence of a possible causal relation between cannabis use and schizophrenia emerged more than 20 years ago and that the strength of more recent evidence may have been overstated-for a number of possible reasons. We also conclude that cannabis use is almost certainly harmful, mainly because of its intimate relation to tobacco use. The most rational policy on cannabis from a public health perspective would seem to be one able to achieve the benefit of reduced use in the population while minimizing social and other costs of the policy itself. Prohibition, whatever the sentence tariff associated with it, seems unlikely to fulfil these criteria.

Submitted 16 July 2009; initial review completed 2 September 2009; final version accepted 19 October 2009

I agree - correlation does not imply causality.

I'm sure the genetic mutation is only a symptom- as is the enlarged ventricles.

They will not ever know what causes schizophrenia until they change their views.

Originally posted by sv_gravity 800
Marijuna is the leading cause in schizophrenia in teens


"Experts estimate that between 8% and 13% of all schizophrenia cases are linked to marijuna / cannabis use during teen years"

www.schizophrenia.com...

great, and how do we know it is not alcohol? I agree that teens shouldn't be doing anything mind altering as they are not fully developed, there is no proof of causality. This also may be attributed to extremely potent varieties of cannabis that should not be used by people with family histories of severe mental illness.

reply to post by BellaMente

Genetic mutation is not a symptom - it is the cause (depending on case of course). Symptom is the expressed RESULT ie behaviour or flaw in cognition due to something such as a mutation.


reply to post by SmokeandShadow

BOTH, because it is anything that releases dopamine, will have an effect on it. As you see dopamine has an effect on memory, learning, perception, etc and as I said above schizophrenia makes it too efficient in processing and thus external dopamine intake will make it a higher risk for developing schizophrenia, if they already had other factors putting them at risk, such as genetic predisposition. Like most psychological disorders there is both the genetic component and the external component (such as trauma in dissociative or anxiety disorders).