Schizophrenia

schizophrenia

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Cognitive therapy has dynamically improved the most neurologically impaired, poorly functioning schizophrenic patients. For the first time, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that a psychosocial treatment can significantly improve daily functioning and quality of life in the lowest-functioning cases of schizophrenia. The study appears in the October 3 edition of Archives of General Psychiatry.

“Mental health professionals often give up on the lowest-functioning cases of schizophrenia and may say that they are not capable of improving,” said Paul Grant, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor in Psychiatry at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. “Our results suggest that cognitive therapy can improve quality of life, reduce symptoms, and promote recovery in these patients. This intervention can help these patients improve to the point where they may be able to move up to the next level in psychosocial functioning – i.e. going from being unemployed to volunteering part-time; not being in school to enrolling in night classes; not socializing to having a weekly social contact and making a friend or two.” [continue reading…]

Brain MRI image

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Researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital have conducted a study which has found striking brain similarities in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The research has also pinpointed for the first time that a process which controls how information is transmitted from neuron to neuron in the brain is altered in both conditions and may potentially contribute to the developments of improved treatments in the future.

The study was the first to look at sub-regions in the part of the brain known as the hippocampus. Abnormalities in the hippocampus are among the most consistent findings in schizophrenia research and are also implicated in bipolar disorder. Certain areas of the hippocampus (cornu ammonis regions 2 and 3) were found to be different, in terms of how their proteins are affected, in people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder compared to the general population. The differences observed in these regions were found to be almost identical in both conditions. A process which controls how information is transmitted by the shuttling of proteins to and from the synapse (a junction that permits a neuron to pass a signal to another cell) was also found to be is affected in both illnesses. [continue reading…]

Voices in the head

Writer and documentary maker Jon Ronson returns for another 5 part series of fascinating stories shedding light on the human condition.

Eleanor Longden started to hear voices in her head when she was at university and was diagnosed as a schizophrenic – a label she totally rejects. Now she is a high achieving academic. What started the voices and how did she get to a point where she not only lives happily with the voices that still exist but also works with others who have the same experience? With contributions from writer Graham Linehan and comedian Josie Long.

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Source: BBC Radio 4

This inspirational short documentary is a story about Sandra MacKay, a woman in her mid-40’s who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at the age of 15. She still has the condition today, but has become a very successful individual despite immense struggles growing up with a mental illness that many people don’t understand.

Directed by Ali H. Virk
Produced by Corey Baldwin
Edited by Sandeep Hundal
Cinematography by Sebastian Echegorri
Sound Recording/Mixing by Daphne Batistella

Early in her life, Sandra started to exhibit the typical symptoms schizophrenia, which came as a surprise to her unsuspecting family. This book( this is not an affliate link) chronicles her struggles, hospitalizations, encounters with professionals, return to school, eventual marriage, and success as an artist, writer and advocate.