Schizophrenia News and Research

Latest Schizophrenia News and Research

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children: an interview with Donna Gillies

Children with PTSD suffer significant distress or negative impacts on their daily lives. Estimates of the prevalence of PTSD in children and adolescents experiencing trauma are generally very high, at 30% to 40%.

28 Jan 2013

Undetected comorbidities linked to increased mortality in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia have elevated mortality, the leading causes of which appear to be ischemic heart disease and cancer, a Swedish national cohort study shows.

25 Jan 2013

Basal tryptase linked to severe reactions in children with sting allergy

Elevated levels of serum basal tryptase are associated with an increased risk for systemic reactions in children with insect venom allergy, research shows.

25 Jan 2013

Adolescent declines in cognitive performance predict later psychosis

Adolescents and young adults experiencing relative declines in cognitive performance have an increased risk for later psychosis, with a decline in verbal ability between 13 and 18 years of age a strong predictor, conclude researchers.

25 Jan 2013

Semantic priming abnormalities differ between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Patients with bipolar disorder have decreased semantic priming, the results of a preliminary study indicate.

25 Jan 2013

Orbitofrontal cortex abnormality characteristic of deficit schizophrenia

The orbitofrontal cortex appears to play an important role in the development of severe negative symptoms in people with deficit schizophrenia, researchers suggest.

25 Jan 2013

New and efficient process to make popular medication for mental illness

In a demonstration of the power of green chemistry, scientists are reporting development of a new and more efficient process for making one of the most costly and widely used medications for severe mental illness.

25 Jan 2013

Yoga has positive effects on major psychiatric disorders

Yoga has positive effects on mild depression and sleep complaints, even in the absence of drug treatments, and improves symptoms associated with schizophrenia and ADHD in patients on medication, according to a systematic review of the exercise on major clinical psychiatric disorders.

25 Jan 2013

Neuromuscular blockade (NMB) reversal

General anesthesia is made up of three components: hypnotic medicines, to induce sleep; analgesics, or medicines to inhibit pain; and NMB agents that induce muscle relaxation. Anesthesiology professionals use NMB to relax a patient’s muscles and prevent involuntary movement that could impact surgery.

24 Jan 2013

New systems of classification of mental disorders may supplement diagnostic formulations

This paper introduce new systems of classification of mental disorders that may supplement diagnostic formulations. Characterizing each stage of an illness demarcates major prognostic and therapeutic differences among patients who otherwise seem to be deceptively similar since they share the same psychiatric diagnosis.

24 Jan 2013

UB scientists propose first genomic explanation for schizophrenia

New University at Buffalo research demonstrates how defects in an important neurological pathway in early development may be responsible for the onset of schizophrenia later in life.

23 Jan 2013

Brown biology professor named Pew's Scholar of the Month

Biologist Erica Larschan, Ph.D., was named by The Pew Charitable Trusts as the "Scholar of the Month," for her innovative findings on chromosomal activity in fruit flies.

22 Jan 2013

Tell tale neurologic soft signs for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Neurologic soft signs can differentiate schizophrenia from major depression but not bipolar disorder, study findings indicate.

22 Jan 2013

Family members with rare gene mutation at high risk of developing schizophrenia

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a rare gene mutation in a single family with a high rate of schizophrenia, adding to evidence that abnormal genes play a role in the development of the disease.

22 Jan 2013

Schizophrenics more likely to die from cardiovascular disease and cancer

A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the average life expectancy of men and women with schizophrenia is 15 years and 12 years shorter respectively than for those who do not suffer from the disease.

22 Jan 2013

Early treatment during primary HIV infection shows promise

Two papers in The New England Journal of Medicine suggest that starting antiretroviral treatment early after HIV infection is diagnosed may improve patients’ immune response, boosting the initial recovery of the immune system and delaying progression of the disease.

21 Jan 2013

Stress in adolescence can cause severe mental illness in young adulthood

Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence — a critical time for brain development — and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause severe mental illness in those predisposed to it.

18 Jan 2013