Copyright 2009 Medical News Today Latest Schizophrenia News From Medical News Today. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/schizophrenia/ admin@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Admin) editors@medicalnewstoday.com (MNT Editors) en-us Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170184.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170184.php Internationally renowned experts in schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, researchers and clinicians, patients and their families and friends will gather in Pittsburgh to discuss the latest in research and clinical advances at the 26th Annual Pittsburgh Schizophrenia Conference to be held Friday, Nov. 13, at the Sheraton Station Square, Pittsburgh. Schizophrenia Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169450.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169450.php Inflammatory response of brain cells - as indicated by a molecular imaging technique - could tell researchers more about why certain neurologic disorders, such as migraine headaches and psychosis in schizophrenic patients, occur and provide insight into how to best treat them, according to two studies published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Schizophrenia Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169101.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169101.php Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: FRX) and Gedeon Richter Plc announced positive top-line results from a Phase IIb clinical trial of the novel, investigational antipsychotic agent cariprazine for the treatment of acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168880.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168880.php A research collaboration led by biologists and neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania has found a molecular pathway in the brain that is the cause of cognitive impairment due to sleep deprivation. Just as important, the team believes that the cognitive deficits caused by sleep deprivation, such as an inability to focus, learn or memorize, may be reversible by reducing the concentration of a specific enzyme that builds up in the hippocampus of the brain. Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168847.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168847.php A new study by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP), King's College London has discovered abnormalities in the white matter of the brain that seem to be critical for the timing of schizophrenia. The study, led by Professor Phillip McGuire and Dr Sophia Frangou, has been published in this month's edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry. The white matter of the brain consists of nerve fibres that connect parts of the brain and help regulate behaviour. Schizophrenia Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168772.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168772.php Johns Hopkins scientists report having used a commercially available drug to successfully "rescue" animal brain cells that they had intentionally damaged by manipulating a newly discovered gene that links susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and autism. The rescue, described as "surprisingly complete" by the researchers, was accomplished with rapamycin, a drug known to act on a protein called mTOR whose role involves the production of other proteins. Schizophrenia Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168679.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168679.php An international team of researchers led by geneticist Jonathan Sebat, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), has identified a mutation on human chromosome 16 that substantially increases risk for schizophrenia. The mutation in question is what scientists call a copy number variant (CNV). CNVs are areas of the genome where the number of copies of genes differs between individuals. The CNV is located in a region referred to by scientists as 16p11.2. Schizophrenia Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168519.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168519.php Last year the UK government reclassified cannabis from a class C to a class B drug, partly out of concerns that cannabis, especially the more potent varieties, may increase the risk of schizophrenia in young people. But the evidence for the relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia or psychosis remains controversial. A new study has determined that it may be necessary to stop thousands of cannabis users in order to prevent a single case of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168391.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168391.php The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a $2.1 million "Grand Opportunity" (GO) grant to a team of researchers - led by Prof. Todd Lencz at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, New York, and Prof.Ariel Darvasi of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - to conduct a study on the genetic basis of schizophrenia.. The team, which also includes Drs. Anil Malhotra and Peter Gregersen of the Feinstein Institute and Dr. Schizophrenia Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168160.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168160.php Researchers say antiepilectic drug treatments administered when the brain is developing appear to trigger schizophrenia-like behavior in animal models. In humans, having a history of seizures in infancy is a significant risk factor for development of schizophrenia later in life, but it is not known whether the elevated risk is due to seizures themselves, or from side effects antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment. Schizophrenia Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167739.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167739.php For decades, scientists have thought the faulty neural wiring that predisposes individuals to behavioral disorders like autism and psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia must occur during development. Even so, no one has ever shown that a risk gene for the disease actually disrupts brain development. Schizophrenia Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167531.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167531.php An innovative diagnostic technique invented by a Monash University researcher could dramatically fast-track the detection of mental and neurological illnesses. Monash biomedical engineer Brian Lithgow has developed electrovestibulography which is something akin to an 'ECG for the mind'. Depression Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167498.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167498.php A half-day workshop on issues in the design of clinical trials to evaluate treatments for negative symptoms of schizophrenia, chaired by Stephen Marder, MD, UCLA Department of Psychiatry and David Daniel, M.D., United BioSource Corporation was held 5 October 2009, as part of the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) Autumn Conference in San Diego, CA. Schizophrenia Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167367.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167367.php Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has received $1.25 million from the National Institutes of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study schizophrenia from an interdisciplinary standpoint. The grant, to be funded over four years, includes three project investigators from three different practice areas. Schizophrenia Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167164.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167164.php International study led by Sydney researchers shows homicides of strangers by people with schizophrenia are exceptionally rare and unpredictable events A study initiated by a team of Sydney researchers published in the leading schizophrenia journal, Schizophrenia Bulletin, shows that homicides of strangers by people diagnosed with schizophrenia are exceptionally rare events. Schizophrenia Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167146.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167146.php A Stanford University School of Medicine researcher has pinpointed the mechanism by which a gene associated with both autism and schizophrenia influences behavior in mice. And just recently, he received a $1.65 million government grant to expand his efforts to include many more such genes. In a study published online on Oct. Autism Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/166376.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/166376.php The finding suggests that a single gene, called GSK-3, controls the signals that determine how many neurons actually end up composing the brain. This has important implications for patients with neuropsychiatric illness, as links have recently been drawn between GSK-3 and schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165098.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165098.php Scientists now have a better understanding of a perplexing gene that is associated with susceptibility for a wide spectrum of severely debilitating mental illnesses. Schizophrenia Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/164478.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/164478.php Schizophrenia is a difficult condition for patients and their families to manage. Relapse is a frequent occurrence, particularly if patients decide to discontinue antipsychotic drug treatment because of unwanted side effects. Psychiatrists say over half of patients relapse within two years and over 80 per cent within five years. Relapse is five times more likely to occur among patients who stop their treatment. Schizophrenia Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163997.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163997.php Schizophrenia is a major public health problem. Affecting almost 1% of the world's population, it takes an enormous economic and social toll in addition to the distress, dysfunction, disability and mortality for those afflicted with this disease. Elements of the disease are present from birth, other aspects emerge during developmental years, and the illness becomes fully expressed in early adulthood with long-lasting implications for most patients. Schizophrenia Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163963.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163963.php Many human diseases - including Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, cancer, and cardiovascular disease - are caused by multiple genetic variants and the interaction of those variants with the environment. Because such diseases lack a clear-cut inheritance pattern, sophisticated technological approaches and statistical analyses are required to determine their underlying cause. Genetics Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163234.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163234.php Similar submicroscopic variations and rearrangements appear in the genetic material of individuals with schizophrenia, autism and mental retardation, suggesting that the three disorders may share a developmental pathway, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Psychology / Psychiatry Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163220.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163220.php In the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of its kind, neurologists and psychiatrists at Columbia University have identified an area of the brain involved in the earliest stages of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. Activity in this specific region of the hippocampus may help predict the onset of the disease, offering opportunities for earlier diagnosis and for the development of drugs for schizophrenia prevention. Schizophrenia Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163131.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163131.php Schizophrenia is one of the more costly diseases to manage in OECD countries and affects up to 1 per cent of the world's population. And as a chronic and often severe neurodevelopmental disorder it accrues neurobiological, social and psychological deficits, and results in premature death after years of disability. Schizophrenia Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:00:00 PST http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/162111.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/162111.php Researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have found that rats use a mental instant replay of their actions to help them decide what to do next, shedding new light on how animals and humans learn and remember. The work will appear in the Aug. 27 issue of the journal Neuron. Neurology / Neuroscience