Vitamin B12 and folate alleviate negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia
Adding the dietary supplements folate and vitamin B12 to treatment with antipsychotic medication improved a core symptom component of schizophrenia in a study of more than 100 patients. The study focused on negative symptoms of schizophrenia – which include apathy, social withdrawal, and a lack of emotional expressiveness. While the level of improvement across all [...]
Autism and Schizophrenia May Develop During Short Period of Time in Infancy
Getty Images/Blend Images / Getty Images/Blend Images Baby playing with a DNA strand Genes connected to the two disorders may only be active for a brief window of time. The study, while in mice, could provide clues about how the developmental disorders develop. Focusing on a region of the brain known as the subplate, where [...]
Evidence mounts for role of mutated genes in development of schizophrenia
Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a rare gene mutation in a single family with a high rate of schizophrenia, adding to evidence that abnormal genes play a role in the development of the disease. The researchers, in a report published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, say that family members with the mutation in the gene [...]
Pneumonia risk increased in schizophrenia
By Mark Cowen, senior medwireNews Reporter medwireNews; Patients with schizophrenia are at an increased risk for developing pneumonia, results from a large Taiwanese study show. Frank Huang-Chih Chou (Kaohsiung Municipal Kai-Syuan Psychiatric Hospital) and team also found that schizophrenia patients were more likely to die after developing pneumonia than those without the mental health disorder. [...]
Contingency management benefits drug-dependent mental health patients
By Mark Cowen, Senior medwireNews Reporter Contingency management significantly reduces stimulant drug use in dependent patients with serious mental illnesses, researchers report. The team, from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, USA, also found that patients assigned to contingency management had fewer psychiatric symptoms and were less likely to be hospitalized during [...]
Hippocampal size linked to illness severity, functioning in schizophrenia
By Mark Cowen, Senior medwireNews Reporter Results from an Italian study show that greater hippocampal deflation is associated with increased illness severity and poorer social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Specifically, Paolo Brambilla (University of Udine) and colleagues found that greater bilateral hippocampal shape deflation was associated with increased length of illness and severity of [...]
Schizophrenia linked to social inequality
Higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas can be attributed to increased deprivation, increased population density and an increase in inequality within a neighbourhood, new research reveals. The research, led by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, was published today in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. Dr James Kirkbride, lead [...]
In schizophrenia patients, auditory cues sound bigger problems
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System have found that deficiencies in the neural processing of simple auditory tones can evolve into a cascade of dysfunctional information processing across wide swaths of the brain in patients with schizophrenia. The findings are published in the [...]
Inflammation and cognition in schizophrenia
There are a growing number of clues that immune and inflammatory mechanisms are important for the biology of schizophrenia. In a new study in Biological Psychiatry, Dr. Mar Fatjó-Vilas and colleagues explored the impact of the interleukin-1β gene (IL1β) on brain function alterations associated with schizophrenia. Fatjó-Vilas said that “this study is a contribution to [...]
Use of antipsychotic drugs improves life expectancy for individuals with schizophrenia
Results of a Johns Hopkins study suggest that individuals with schizophrenia are significantly more likely to live longer if they take their antipsychotic drugs on schedule, avoid extremely high doses and also regularly see a mental health professional. Psychiatrists have long known that people with schizophrenia who stick to a drug regimen have fewer of [...]
