Cause of schizophrenia identified

[farraway]

Hey, I live in Melbourne and there was an article in todays "Age" newspaper that might be of interest.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/cause-of-schizophrenia-identified-20090516-b6tb.html

[ILADVOCATE]

That is of interest. They are studying many new receptors including nicotinergic receptors (after studies were done to find out why people with schizophrenia tended to smoke and some clinical reasons why to develop compounds that could become medications that didn't have the hazards of nicotine). More of bearing to me is this quote I cut and pasted from answers.com on schizophrenia though they have found in me that the glycine works on positive symptoms that is standard symptoms such as psychosis and auditory hallucinations so they will have to research this more to make more conclusive determinations.


"Interest has also focused on the neurotransmitter glutamate and the reduced function of the NMDA glutamate receptor in schizophrenia. This has largely been suggested by abnormally low levels of glutamate receptors found in postmortem brains of people previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and the discovery that the glutamate blocking drugs such as phencyclidine and ketamine can mimic the symptoms and cognitive problems associated with the condition. The fact that reduced glutamate function is linked to poor performance on tests requiring frontal lobe and hippocampal function and that glutamate can affect dopamine function, all of which have been implicated in schizophrenia, have suggested an important mediating (and possibly causal) role of glutamate pathways in schizophrenia. Positive symptoms fail however to respond to glutamatergic medication."

[Memo213]

The mental illness is one that is physical. There's nothing hiding away or invisible about schizophrenia. You can find everything about it by checking the brain. This they should know by now. Creating new treatments/cures means they must address all the abnormalities and such in the brain, to ultimately reverse it. This few know.

[ILADVOCATE]

They do know but they are learning. Schizophrenia is biochemical in nature not anything to do with the structure of the brain. But until recently the only theory they had to go on and the way all antipsychotics were based was that there was an imbalance of dopamine. Now they are learning more. That's not to say that current antipsychotics aren't quite helpful but the future generation will have a more favorable recovery rate and more favorable side effect profile. Here's a list of all psychiatric medications in development you can bookmark:
http://psychmeds123.info/
and this article from the New York Times about a glutamate antagonist
antipsychotic in development:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/03/business/03drug.html?_r=1
There are other links I know of interest. I just can't post them as they are clinical studies but they are posted online so I could pm you but if you want on your own go through Pubmed. There are some very promising new treatment modalities and in 5-10 years the general public will very likely see benefit of them.