Research Breakthrough in the study of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Originally named by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908, Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception may affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction.
The condition is thought to affect around 1% of people at some point in their lives, often appearing first in late adolescence or early adulthood, and can cause untold human misery. Social problems, such as long-term unemployment, poverty and homelessness, are common and the lifetime occurrence of substance abuse is estimated to be around 40%. Furthermore, the average life expectancy of people with the disorder is 10 to 12 years less than those without, due to increased physical health problems and a higher suicide rate, according to the British Journal of Psychiatry. In addition to the toll the disease takes on its sufferers, it also has massive economic and social implications. The British taxpayer is estimated to spend around £2bn per year on care and treatment for the disorder and according to Professor David St Clair of the University of Aberdeen the global bill for drugs alone runs to around £12.5bn in society’s attempts to fight the affliction.
However, an article appearing on the front cover of The Independent has today given new hope to researchers and professionals dealing with the illness, together with its millions of sufferers, worldwide. Entitled “Unlocked: the secrets of schizophrenia”, the article explains how researchers in three locations across the world have combined their efforts and data on more than 15,000 patients and 50,000 healthy “control” individuals to come up with new information about the genetic roots of schizophrenia.
It has been found that the presence of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), tiny genetic mutations of which there may be thousands in a given individual, could be contributing to an increased risk of developing the illness, with each one raising the odds by about 0.2%. Other factors affecting the probability of suffering from Schizophrenia include an inherited component (responsible for around 80% of the risk according to the article), upbringing and environment.
The other surprising development from the three studies, and one on which the report spends quite some time, is that Schizophrenia has also been shown to share a common genetic basis with Manic Depression (also known as Bipolar Disorder). Until now Schizophrenia and Manic Depression have been considered entirely independent entities, but in light of this new evidence Michael O’Donovan, a Professor of Psychiatric Genetics at the Medical Research Council’s neurogenetics centre in Cardiff, South Wales is reported to have said that “the two disorders are not really as distinct as we thought in psychiatry”.
The advantage of these discoveries for the treatment of both Schizophrenia and Manic Depression is difficult to overstate. Kari Stefansson, head of Icelandic firm deCode Genetics which was centrally involved in the study, has explained that “discoveries such as these are crucial for teasing out the biology of the disease and making it possible for us to begin to develop drugs targeting the underlying causes and not just the symptoms”. Probably the most optimistic statement, however, has come directly from Dr. Eric Lander, the founding director of an 11 member syndicate of research bodies formally known as the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research (WICGR). He estimates that “over the past year…psychiatric disease geneticists have detected more statistically compelling findings than in the previous 100 years”.
Enthusiasm over the new developments must be tempered, however, as there seemingly still a long way to go before the findings can be of real, practical use. Professor St Clair, quoted above, went on to state that “this is not a breakthrough that is going to change clinical practice any time soon. It will still be many years before our findings can be translated into new drug treatments”.
Nevertheless, it is clear that this is an important day for sufferers, their families, and the teams of medical researchers and practitioners who wage a tireless campaign against one of the most common and destructive mental illnesses known to man.
Who decides what is paranoid or not? I am not diagnosed a skitzo myself,but I know of people who have been.More than often the psychiatrists didnt even for once listen to how these people came to their reasoning about something. I found that many skitzos are not paranoid at all, but were just not clued up about how something works in real life, and came to realise it at some later stage.(the learning curve came years later for some, to realise the unrealistic view they had, but neverthe less. How else must they realise if no-one teaches them how a certain event of things normally work?Doesnt mean they are paranoid at all!)I feel sorry for these people being labelled this way.Very unfair if you ask me.Also psychiatry apparently has no physical evidence at all.Who came up with psychiatry? What real evidence exists in the first place?Dont be all have unrealistic ideas at some point anyway,and those that have them more frequently just have diffrent ideas,due to not knowing how things work in the real world?
@Grant
silly man
@Sophie: silly woman you are indeed.
@Grant: you’re completely right. Psychiatry is absolutely unscientific. It’s nothing like chemistry, physics or astronomy. It’s mostly based on stupid prejudices.