schizophrenia - Medical Dictionary

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schizophrenia		A severe emotional disorder of psychotic depth characteristically marked by a retreat from reality with delusion formation, hallucinations, emotional disharmony, and regressive behavior. [ Articles \| Books \| Images \| Discussion groups ]

Additional comments : (Dementia Praecox) Practice Guideline Treating Schizophrenia Faulty wiring in the brain may cause early-onset schizophrenia Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to look into the brains of children with schizophrenia, researchers have discovered abnormalities in the white matter of the frontal lobe that disrupt the transmission of signals regulating behavior, according to a study presented at the 89th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Myelin is the covering of nerve bundles that protects neurons and increases their transmission efficiency. The accumulation of myelin around these neurons is called myelination. In the human developmental process, myelination correlates with maturing patterns of behavior. In patients with schizophrenia, the cells that carry out the process of myelination are defective. Adolescents are diagnosed with schizophrenia if they meet two of the five criteria; hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, bizarre behavior and negative symptoms (lack of motivation, loss of enjoyment in activities) for at least six months and display deterioration of functioning. Children with schizophrenia are likely to exhibit developmental delay and language and emotional problems before the onset of psychotic symptoms. Schizophrenia is a chronic and extremely disabling brain disease that affects one out of every 100 people in the United States. There is no cure. Source: Radiological Society of North America Schizophrenia could cause patients to forget their medication Patients with schizophrenia must take medication regularly to reduce their risk of relapse. But the disease impairs memory, according to an article published in BMC Psychiatry, meaning these patients may have difficulty in remembering to take their tablets. Habitual tasks, like taking medicine every few hours, rely on "prospective memory". This type of memory, which appears to be impaired by schizophrenia, enables you to remember that you have to do something in the future, without being prompted. The authors hypothesised that patients with schizophrenia would have problems with tasks requiring prospective memory. They might mistake remembering they have to do something with remembering they've actually done it. Their hypothesis stemmed from the theory that people with schizophrenia confuse real and imagined events. To test their hypothesis the researchers, based at NIMH and the University of Warwick, compared the prospective memory of people with and without the disease. In each test participants manoeuvred a ball around an obstacle course for 90 seconds. They were asked to turn over a counter when they were at least 25 seconds into the test. The time delay ensured that prospective memory had to be used. Participants with schizophrenia were more likely to forget to turn over the counter. At the end of the test the participants were asked if they had remembered to turn over the counter. Approximately a third of the time participants with schizophrenia reported they had done so when they had not. Source: BioMed Central NIMH Study To Guide Treatment Choices For Schizophrenia A large study funded by NIH's National Institute of MentalHealth (NIMH) provides, for the first time, detailed information comparing the effectiveness and side effects of five medications bothnew and older medications that are currently used to treat people with schizophrenia. Overall, the medications were comparably effective but were associated with high rates of discontinuation due to intolerable side effects or failure to adequately control symptoms. One new medication, olanzapine, was slightly better than the other drugs but also was associated with significant weight-gain and metabolic changes. Surprisingly, the older, less expensive medication used in the study generally performed as well as the newer medications. The study,which included more than 1,400 people, supplies important new information that will help doctors and patients choose the most appropriate medication according to the patients' individual needs. Contrary to expectations,movement side effects (rigidity, stiff movements, tremor, and muscle restlessness) primarily associated with the older medications, were not seen more frequently with perphenazine (the drug used to represent the class of older medications) than with the newer drugs. The older medication was as well tolerated as the newer drugs and was equally effective as three of the newer medications. The advantages of olanzapine in symptom reduction and duration of treatment over the older medication were modest and must be weighed against the increased side effects of olanzapine. Source: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health UCLA Researchers Map How Schizophrenia Engulfs Teen Brains UCLA brain researchers using a powerful new analysis technique have created the first images showing the devastating impact of schizophrenia on the brain. The findings, published in the issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show how a dynamic wave of tissue loss engulfs the brains of schizophrenic patients in their teenage years. Scientists at UCLA and the National Institute of Mental Health employed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to scan a group of teenagers repeatedly as they developed schizophrenia. Using a new image analysis method that detects very fine changes in the brain, the scientists detected gray matter loss of more than 10 percent first in the parietal, or outer, regions of the brain; this loss spread to engulf the rest of the brain over five years. Patients with the worst brain tissue loss also had the worst symptoms, which included hallucinations, delusions, bizarre and psychotic thoughts, hearing voices, and depression. Schizophrenia affects an estimated 1 percent of Americans. Its causes are unknown, and the disease typically hits without warning in the late teens or 20s. Researchers also detected a mild loss of brain tissue in healthy teenagers. Between ages 13 and 18, they lost about 1 percent gray matter per year in the parietal cortices, the region where the spreading wave began. In schizophrenics, this brain tissue loss gained momentum and swept into the sensory and motor regions. The frontal eye fields lost tissue fastest, at about 5 percent per year. These fields control eye movements, which often are disturbed in schizophrenic patients. In another first, the brain-mapping technique reveals underlying changes in the brain's anatomical hardware as teenagers mature normally or develop psychosis. The identification of previously unseen waves of loss and key anatomical changes will allow scientists to establish powerful links between cognitive and behavioral changes and rapid changes in underlying brain structures. Free Full Text Obsessive-compulsive disorder in schizophrenia: epidemiologic and biologic overlap (pdf) Psychopathology and quality of life in schizophrenia (pdf) Distractibility and symptoms in schizophrenia (pdf) Premorbid functioning, cognitive functioning, symptoms and outcome in schizophrenia (pdf) The role of estrogen in schizophrenia (pdf) Memory deficits in schizophrenia: inadequate assimilation or true amnesia? Findings from the Wechsler Memory Scale--revised (pdf) Cognitive functioning in first-episode schizophrenia Brain imaging: evoked potential, quantitative EEG and SPECT abnormalities in schizophrenia (pdf) Fetal Environment and Schizophrenia Schizophrenia: Neural Mechanisms for Novel Therapies Cognitive Effects of Olanzapine Treatment in Schizophrenia Physical anhedonia in the acute phase of schizophrenia Cardiac risk and schizophrenia (pdf) The future of pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia Social Skills Training for Schizophrenia (pdf) Contemporary Issues in the Treatment of Schizophrenia (pdf) The future of pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia Coeliac disease and schizophrenia - Data do not support hypothesis

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