Schizophrenia News and Research

Latest Schizophrenia News and Research

Borderline personality disorder more common than schizophrenia

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, borderline personality disorder (BPD) is more common than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and is estimated to affect 2 percent of the population.

16 Dec 2008

Study looks at how parental age affects the mental functioning of offspring

Tel Aviv University researchers found in several consecutive studies that older dads are more likely to have boys with autism and lower IQs. Most recently, they found that the older a father's age, the greater the chance that his son will display poor social abilities as a teen.

15 Dec 2008

Paliperidone palmitate shows positive results for treatment of schizophrenia

Paliperidone palmitate, an investigational long-acting therapy (LAT) demonstrated statistically significant symptom control compared with placebo according to the results of a 13-week study.

14 Dec 2008

Stressed-out mice reveal role of epigenetics in behavior

Research conducted by a team in Switzerland suggests that a family of genes involved in regulating the expression of other genes in the brain is responsible for helping us deal with external inputs such as stress.

12 Dec 2008

Protein FKBP12 provides new insights into understanding autism

Researchers at New York University's Center for Neural Science and the Baylor College of Medicine have identified a protein that when removed from mice results in behaviors that are akin to those with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

10 Dec 2008

Decreased levels of binding gene affect memory and behavior

Reducing the activity of a gene called FKBP12 in the brains of mice affected neuron-to-neuron communication (synapse) and increased both fearful memory and obsessive behavior, indicating the gene could provide a target for drugs to treat diseases such as autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disease and others, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report in the current issue of the journal Neuron.

10 Dec 2008

Brain deletion of FK506-binding protein enhances repetitive behaviors in mice

A new study reveals a link between dysregulation of a common signaling pathway and repetitive behaviors similar to those associated with multiple neurological and neurodegenerative disorders including, autism spectrum disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Huntington's disease.

10 Dec 2008

New clues to the roots of epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia

Rice University researchers have found a potential clue to the roots of epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia and other neurological disorders.

10 Dec 2008

AstraZeneca and Targacept announce results from trial of AZD3480 for cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia

AstraZeneca and Targacept, Inc. havey announced top-line results from a Phase IIb clinical trial of AZD3480 (TC-1734) conducted by AstraZeneca in cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia (CDS), known as the HALO trial.

10 Dec 2008

Large study looks at genetic risks for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

A multi-institution team of investigators led by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) has received $19 million in funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) for a groundbreaking effort to collect genetic information on tens of thousands of patients in order to study the genetic risks for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

3 Dec 2008

Breakthrough in strategy used to develop new pharmacological treatments for schizophrenia

In one of the first instances of targeted drug design in psychiatric treatment, University of Pittsburgh researchers have found an experimental agent that shows promise in addressing working memory impairments that occur in schizophrenia.

1 Dec 2008

People with lower IQs may have greater risk of mental disorders

Researchers have hypothesized that people with lower IQs may have a higher risk of adult mental disorders, but few studies have looked at the relationship between low childhood IQ and psychiatric disorders later in life.

1 Dec 2008

Roche to acquire Memory Pharmaceuticals

Roche and Memory Pharmaceuticals has announced that the two companies have signed a definitive merger agreement for Roche to acquire all the outstanding shares of Memory Pharmaceuticals in an all-cash transaction for an aggregate price of approximately USD 50 million.

25 Nov 2008

New plan to tackle off-label prescribing

Physicians and policy-makers know that drugs are frequently prescribed to treat certain diseases despite a lack of FDA approval - a practice known as off-label prescribing.

24 Nov 2008

Stress found to impair decision making in rats

Neuroscientists from the University of Washington have found that a single exposure to uncontrollable stress impairs decision making in rats for several days, making them unable to reliably seek out the larger of two rewards.

18 Nov 2008

Patients with depressive disorders or schizophrenia more likely to re-attempt suicide

Men and women who have tried to kill themselves and are suffering from unipolar disorder (major depression), bipolar disorder (manic depression) or schizophrenia are at a very high risk of committing suicide within a year of their first attempt, concludes a study published today on bmj.com.

18 Nov 2008

Kynurenic acid in brain shows potential as schizophrenia target

New research has traced elevated levels of a specific compound in the brain to problem-solving deficits in patients with schizophrenia.

18 Nov 2008

Breakthrough in cellular analysis

Like skilled assassins, many diseases seem to know exactly what types of cells to attack.

16 Nov 2008

Swiss approval for Zevtera in treatment of complicated skin and soft tissue infections

Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for therapeutic products, has approved Zevtera (ceftobiprole medocaril) for the treatment of complicated skin and soft tissue infections, including diabetic foot infections which have not spread to the bone.

13 Nov 2008

Breakthrough in cell-type analysis offers new ways to study development and disease

Like skilled assassins, many diseases seem to know exactly what types of cells to attack. While decimating one cadre of cells, diseases will inexplicably spare a seemingly identical group of neighbors. What makes cells vulnerable or not depends largely on the kinds and amounts of proteins they produce - their 'translational profile,' in the lingo of molecular biology. For this reason, scientists have struggled to parse the subtle molecular differences among the hundreds of specialized cell types that are tangled together in tissues like the brain.

13 Nov 2008