Schizophrenia News and Research

Latest Schizophrenia News and Research

Salty diet may trigger autoimmune disease

Results from two studies published in Nature show that eating a salty diet may trigger the development of autoimmunity.

7 Mar 2013

Treating substance abuse alone helps patients with co-occurring psychosis

Patients with co-occurring substance use disorder and psychiatric disorders may benefit from standard substance use disorder treatment, with the effects potentially lasting for several years, the results of a US study indicate.

7 Mar 2013

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.

7 Mar 2013

Fractional anisotropy examines age-related decline in cerebral white matter in schizophrenia, MDD

Many lines of evidence indicate that schizophrenia is a disorder of neurodevelopment. For example, genes implicated in the heritable risk for schizophrenia are also implicated in the development of nerve cells and their connections.

7 Mar 2013

Selective activation of the dentate gyrus can reduce anxiety without affecting learning

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first evidence that selective activation of the dentate gyrus, a portion of the hippocampus, can reduce anxiety without affecting learning.

7 Mar 2013

Non-social cognitive deficits outweigh social ones in bipolar disorder

Patients with bipolar disorder have relatively greater impairments in non-social cognition than social cognition, whereas the opposite is true for patients with schizophrenia, researchers report.

6 Mar 2013

Foreign-born adoptees most at risk for psychiatric disorders

Foreign-born adoptees have the highest rates of psychiatric disorders among migrants, show the results of a large, Danish population-based cohort study.

6 Mar 2013

Pain self-management and exercise ‘effective in elderly’

Techniques for the self-management of chronic pain based on cognitive behavioral therapy significantly reduce disability, suggest results from a randomized controlled trial in older adults.

6 Mar 2013

UK’s health performance declining compared with 14 EU countries over past 20 years

Six decades of universal free health care, the introduction of widespread public health initiatives (eg, tobacco control, cancer screening, and immunisation), and substantial increases in health expenditure have failed to improve the UK’s health outcomes or longevity ranking against the average of 14 other original members of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Norway, and the USA (EU15+) over the past 20 years.

6 Mar 2013

Quitting cannabis may not alleviate psychosis

The amount of cannabis used does not appear to be associated with the severity of symptoms in patients with established psychosis, although the drug is linked to a small effect on psychosocial functioning, say UK scientists.

5 Mar 2013

Gene cluster implicated in Behçet's disease

Scientists may have uncovered an underlying genetic susceptibility for Behçet's disease in East Asian patients.

5 Mar 2013

Omalizumab scratches the itch for urticaria patients

The monoclonal antibody omalizumab seems to be effective at relieving symptoms for patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria who have not responded to H1-antihistamine therapy, report US researchers.

5 Mar 2013

Forceps delivery ‘does not increase atopy risk’

Results from a population-based cohort study suggest that forceps-assisted birth is associated with an increased risk for asthma, but not allergic sensitization, in later childhood.

5 Mar 2013

Schizophrenic people with MIR137 tend to develop illness at younger age

Some of the dramatic differences seen among patients with schizophrenia may be explained by a single gene that regulates a group of other schizophrenia risk genes. These findings appear in a new imaging-genetics study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

5 Mar 2013

KMO gene variant associated with increased production of kynurenic acid

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found an explanation for why the level of kynurenic acid (KYNA) is higher in the brains of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disease with psychosis. The study, which is published in the scientific periodical Molecular Psychiatry, identifies a gene variant associated with an increased production of KYNA.

5 Mar 2013

Positive results from NeuroDerm ND0612 Phase I trial on Parkinson's

NeuroDerm, Ltd. announced today the results of a Phase I safety and pharmacokinetic trial of ND0612, a novel drug formulation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

4 Mar 2013

Combination of two environmental factors contributes to schizophrenia

The interplay between an infection during pregnancy and stress in puberty plays a key role in the development of schizophrenia, as behaviourists from ETH Zurich demonstrate in a mouse model. However, there is no need to panic.

2 Mar 2013

Otsuka receives FDA approval for ABILIFY MAINTENA to treat schizophrenia

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka) and H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ABILIFY MAINTENA (aripiprazole) for extended- release injectable suspension, an intramuscular (IM) depot formulation indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia.

1 Mar 2013

Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia share common genetic risk factors

For the first time, scientists have discovered that five major psychiatric disorders—autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia—share several common genetic risk factors.

28 Feb 2013

Symptom profile changes between first-episode and chronic schizophrenia

First-episode schizophrenia patients have more positive and fewer negative symptoms than chronic schizophrenia patients, and are more likely to report childhood sexual abuse, a team of researchers has discovered.

27 Feb 2013