New study finds evidence for reduced brain connections in schizophrenia

Advances in scanning have allowed researchers for the first time to show lower levels of a protein found in the connections between neurons in the living brains of people with schizophrenia. The researchers, who conducted the scans at the psychiatric imaging facility at the Medical Research Council (MRC) London Institute of Medical Sciences, say these changes could underlie the cognitive […]

Continue reading »

Schizophrenia risk gene linked to cognitive deficits in mice

Researchers have discovered in mice how one of the few genes definitively linked to schizophrenia, called SETD1A, likely confers risk for the illness. Mice genetically engineered to lack a functioning version of the enzyme-coding gene showed abnormalities in working memory, mimicking those commonly seen in schizophrenia patients. Restoring the gene’s function corrected the working memory deficit. Counteracting the gene’s deficiencies […]

Continue reading »

In vitro cell culture findings could lead to novel interventions for schizophrenia

A study recently published in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature journal, has shown how using cultured cells from patients with psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, to investigate abnormalities in nerve connections in the brain could lead to new treatments. Strong correlations were observed between the findings in the cells in culture—grown outside the body in a controlled environment—and findings from brain […]

Continue reading »

Resynchronizing neurons to erase schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, an often severe and disabling psychiatric disorder, affects approximately 1 percent of the world’s population. While research over the past few years has suggested that desynchronization of neurons may be the cause of its neuropsychiatric symptoms, including memory disorders, hyperactivity and hallucinatory phenomena, the cellular origin of such desynchronization remains poorly understood. Now, researchers at the University of Geneva […]

Continue reading »

Remission of schizophrenia seen with amisulpride, clozapine

(HealthDay)—Remission can be achieved for most cases of schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder with amisulpride and clozapine, according to a study published online Aug. 13 in the The Lancet Psychiatry. René S. Kahn, M.D., from Brain Center Rudolf Magnus in Utrecht, Netherlands, and colleagues recruited 481 participants from 27 centers in 14 European countries and Israel. Patients aged 18 to 40 […]

Continue reading »