Schizophrenia News and Research

Latest Schizophrenia News and Research

North Carolina mental health parity law comes into effect

North Carolina health care insurers must provide the same amount of coverage for certain mental conditions as they do for physical ailments under a state law that took effect on Tuesday, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

3 Jul 2008

FDA approves generic Risperidone for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic versions of Risperdal (risperidone) tablets. Risperdal is an antipsychotic drug used for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric conditions.

1 Jul 2008

Watson Pharmaceuticals launches generic version of dronabinol

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that, under a supply agreement with Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Watson has launched the authorized generic version of dronabinol in the 2.5, 5 and 10 mg once daily dosage strengths.

30 Jun 2008

Combination of cognitive-behaviour therapy and d-Cycloserine provides new hope for sufferers of social anxiety

Young people and adults who experience social anxiety may benefit from a revolutionary new study being carried out at the University of Sydney.

30 Jun 2008

Canada's mental health crisis

No one is safe from mental illness; it strikes without regard for age, gender, or social status. And even though one in four Canadians suffer from a mental illness, it remains a stigma, shrouded in misconceptions.

24 Jun 2008

Hunger hormone ghrelin increases during stress, may have antidepressant effect

New research at UT Southwestern Medical Center may explain why some people who are stressed or depressed overeat.

24 Jun 2008

Warning about use of psychiatric drugs with the elderly

Health officials in the U.S. are warning doctors that prescribing certain psychiatric drugs to elderly people suffering from dementia can increase their risk of death.

17 Jun 2008

Discovery of mechanisms that direct cholinergic synapse assembly between neurons in vivo

Rapid information processing in the nervous system requires synapses, specialized contact sites between nerve cells and their targets. One particular synapse type, cholinergic, uses the chemical transmitter acetylcholine to communicate between nerve cells. Cholinergic synapses are essential for normal learning and memory, arousal, attention, and all autonomic (involuntary) nervous system functions.

16 Jun 2008

Antipsychotic drugs get FDA label changes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today exercised its new authority under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA) to require manufacturers of "conventional" antipsychotic drugs to make safety-related changes to prescribing information, or labeling, to warn about an increased risk of death associated with the off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia.

16 Jun 2008

Researchers show brain can protect against cancer

Scientists have been aware for many years that if cancer patients are not able to deal with the stress associated with being sick, the cancer will progress faster than in calmer patients.

9 Jun 2008

Nose stem cells used to treat Parkinson's

Scientists in Queensland, Australia have made a major breakthrough in research into Parkinson's disease.

9 Jun 2008

Long term dope use shrinks the brain

According to Australian researchers the long term use of marijuana may cause parts of the brain which control memory, emotion and aggression, to shrink.

3 Jun 2008

Long-term, heavy cannabis use may shrink brain's hippocampus and amygdala

Long-term, heavy cannabis use may be associated with structural abnormalities in areas of the brain known as the hippocampus and amygdala, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

2 Jun 2008

Researchers pinpoint gene mutations responsible for 10 percent of non-familial cases of schizophrenia

Scans of the genome of patients with schizophrenia have revealed rare spontaneous copy number mutations that account for at least 10 percent of the non-familial cases of the disease.

1 Jun 2008

Spontaneous mutations widespread in non-familial schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia from families with no history of the illness were found to harbor eight times more spontaneous mutations - most in pathways affecting brain development - than healthy controls, in a study supported in part the National Institutes of Health?s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). By contrast, no spontaneous mutations were found in people with schizophrenia who had family histories of the illness.

30 May 2008

Antipsychotic drugs dangerous for the elderly

A Canadian study has found that prescribing antipsychotic drugs for elderly people may be dangerous.

27 May 2008

When facelifts go wrong: Stanford expert counsels plastic surgeons on dealing with unhappy patients

Watch for the red flags: the patient who pulls out a photo of Tom Cruise and says he wants to look just like that, or the perfectionist who comes to the initial interview with each hair in place, makeup just so.

21 May 2008

Spectral Modeling technology substantiated through creation of antipsychotic bank of drug candidates

LIUS Molecular Design is pleased to announce that it has successfully created two antipsychotic drug candidates with third party confirmation of predicted biological activities via in vitro testing.

19 May 2008

microRNAs provide more clues to genetics of schizophrenia

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have illuminated a window into how abnormalities in microRNAs, a family of molecules that regulate expression of numerous genes, may contribute to the behavioral and neuronal deficits associated with schizophrenia and possibly other brain disorders.

11 May 2008

New clues into how preeclampsia may surface in some pregnancies

The COMT gene - known already for its role in schizophrenia - has been found to play a role in preeclampsia, according to a report in the advance on-line issue of Nature.

11 May 2008