Schizophrenia simple

Residual schizophrenia Simple schizophrenia Residual type... 

For the healthy subject, everything has two sides. Roses have their thorns. But in ninety-nine percent of cases the normal subject balances the negadve against the positive. He loves roses in spite of their thorns. Schizophrenia, with its faulty associations, is not necessarily able to reconcile the two sides he loves the rose for its beauty and at the same time he hates it because of its thorns. The same holds true for numerous other ideas, both simple and complex, which have for him two affective valences which show themselves side by side or alternate one after the other, (cited in Grilliat 174, my translation)... 

Unlabeled Uses Prevention of migraine treatment of behavior disorders in Alzheimer s disease bipolar disorder chorea, myoclonic, simple partial, and tonic-clonic seizures organic brain syndrome schizophrenia status epilepticus tardive dyskinesia... 

Like the monoamine hypothesis of depression, such a simple hypothesis was appeaUng but, perhaps predictably, a Uttle too simple to be true. Further research using a technique known as positron emission tomography (PET) showed the relationship between dopamine and schizophrenia is more complex. PET detects radioactive emissions of certain isotopes these isotopes are incorporated into a molecule and injected into a patient. The machine measures the radioactivity with detectors positioned aroimd the body. PET lets researchers study the distribution of certain molecules in Uving tissue since, imUke autoradiography, the tissue is not sliced and treated chemically. The amoimt of radioactivity must be small, however, to avoid harming the human subjects. 

Neurochemists continue to improve the methods they use to measure and analyze chemicals of the brain. They have also developed techniques to study how neurons transmit messages across synapses to other neurons, and how these messages affect the recipients. Synaptic transmission is critical in brain function, and neurotransmitter imbalances have been associated with disorders such as depression and schizophrenia as well as drug abuse. Although the cause or causes of these conditions are not necessarily as simple as too much or too little of a certain neurotransmitter, chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin are undoubtedly involved. Neurotransmitters have been excellent starting points for further, ongoing studies into these issues. 

Despite its relatively fast and thorough rebuttal, the serotonin hypothesis of schizophrenia was fruitful in two respects it gave rise to the development of sensitive serotonin assay methods and proof that serotonin does occur in the brain (Carlsson, 1987) and it served as the prototype for other simple and thus readily testable biochemical hypotheses of mental illnesses. Interest in serotonin has been reawakened in recent years in relation to the mechanism of action of some antipsychotics (see below) however, this development had little to do with the serotonin hypothesis of schizophrenia in its original version. 

The story is really about the Pink Spot of Schizophrenia. Many years ago, an observation was made in a biochemical laboratory on the East Coast that stirred up a rolling controversy. It had been found that if the urines of schizophrenic patients (sloppily called schizophrenic urines ) were extracted in such and such a way, and the extracts chromatographed, a pink spot would develop at a particular place on the chromatogram. Well, if this proved to be true with urines of a sick population, and were this proved to be different from the urines of a healthy population, it would constitute an objective diagnosis of schizophrenia. A simple chemical test to confirm a pathology that had defied all efforts to achieve consensus amongst the psychiatrists of the world. 

The only confirmable fact that endured was that the pink spot was due to DMPEA. So a bright spotlight was directed towards its possible role in mental illness. And this expressed itself in the simple question would it produce schizophrenia in a normal subject No. And in a way I am comforted that that did... 

But might either of these two observations lead to a diagnostic test for schizophrenia At the present time, the conventional thinking is that this probably cannot be. The illness has such social and genetic contributions, that no simple measure of a response to an almost-psychedelic, or minor shift of some urinary metabolite pattern could possibly be believed. No independent confirmation of... 

Object recognition is an attractive task for testing compounds for their potential against cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. It is a relatively simple task, with the additional benefit that it can be performed across species. Although the literature for the neural substrates involved in this task remains controversial, there does seem to be some overlap in the neural circuits that mediate object recognition in rats, primates, and humans and that contain medial temporal lobe structures (106-113). 

High concordances between identical twins and first-degree relatives are reported for schizophrenia and manic depressive psychoses. There is evidence of simple dominant and possibly X-linked inheritance of manic depressive psychosis in some families, but the extent to which the total incidence is mutationally maintained is not clear. 

Meanwhile, recent research indicates that childhood abuse is a causal factor for psychosis and schizophrenia and, more specifically, for hallucinations, particularly voices commenting and command hallucinations (Read et ah, 2005). But even more to the point is a simple summary from Medical News Today ( Schizophrenia, 2005), paraphrasing the conclusions of Richard Bental, Professor in Experimental Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester ... 

Hemsley DR. 1993. A simple (or simplistic ) cognitive model for schizophrenia. Behav Res Ther 31 633-645. 

Ohara K, Isoda H, Suzuki Y, Takehara Y, Ochiai M, et al. 2000. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of lenticular nuclei in simple schizophrenia. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 24 507-519. 

More important than any of these factors (which are, after all, unique, unverified, and umepeatable events) indicating a condition beyond simple schizophrenia are the idea models we have created out of the careful observation of the things that happened to us. It is upon this theory, and not as reporters of paranormal events, that we wish to be judged. 

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