Are There Immune Suppressing Drugs to Treat Schizophrenia?

You can also check us out at http://mhcd.org/blog  This article says there is support for Immune suppressing drugs to treat schizophrenia. It talks about it in this story: “Although researchers have suspected that schizophrenia is linked to a dysfunctional immune system, a lack of evidence has kept away research funding that would allow the testing of immune-system suppressing drugs on schizophrenia patients.” They have been leading towards this research in other ways. I talked about them using antibiotics in another blog I wrote about earlier. I do think they are connected; it looks like they are looking at different avenues now with schizophrenia.
It goes on to say: “Thanks to new research that clearly demonstrates that the brains of people with schizophrenia may be under attack, however, scientists may be getting the go-ahead. In order to expose people to dangerous treatments- and immunosuppressive drugs do carry risks- you need serious evidence to suggest those drugs may be useful in treating the condition…” This is different from the other article in that they are not going to try antibiotics. “In the past, researchers have had great difficulty convincing an ethics committee that this treatment strategy for schizophrenia.” They will have to prove their research to be right on the mark, it looks like before they will be able to say this study is true.
It does have to do with inflammation as did the antibiotic article: “The new study, led by the Schizophrenia Research Institute, has shown immune cells in a key brain region affected by the disorder once thought to be inactive- are in fact causing inflammation and damage. This, in combination with evidence we already have from existing studies, adds to the argument from researchers that it is now reasonable to trial immunosuppressants on schizophrenia patients.” Is it just some of the people with schizophrenia or all of them, I guess the research will find out that question. I think everyone is different.
The article goes on to say: “This research that will lead to more effective treatment options with the potential to significantly improve a sufferer’s quality of life will now be greatly accelerated… The time to start further research and clinical trials is now… We can use this information to target specific aspects of immune system involved in schizophrenia more directly.” Better treatments will help a lot of people with schizophrenia. What they do not talk about is if some people’s brains are too damaged to help with a new treatment.
This last part is about the study: “As part of the study, researchers analyzed an area of the brain involved in regulation emotional and social behavior- the orbitofrontal cortex- in 40 people, half with schizophrenia. About 40 percent of those with schizophrenia had higher levels of inflammation in that section of the brain. The part of the brain we looked at is indeed in crisis in people with schizophrenia… This raises the possibility that this is a new root cause of the disease.” Inflammation is a bad thing for any part of the body and probably the brain. I hope they will let people know what they found out. If the drugs are risky, would people take them? They said forty percent had inflammation not all that they tested. I guess we will just have to wait and find out the results of this new study. It is an interesting study though. The two articles are connected by inflammation in the brain. The other article I wrote about uses an antibiotic to treat the inflammation. Both these studies might be beneficial. Make sure to check us out at http://mhcd.org/blog

Can an Antibiotic Fight Schizophrenia?

BEFORE I GET INTO The BLOG, I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT The RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION: OUR BLOG WILL CONTINUE FROM OUR NEW HOME:  http://www.mhcd.org/blog That is what this article says that maybe it can lead to a new discovery for this type of antibiotic. “Five years ago, a Japanese psychiatrist and his colleagues observed something peculiar regarding two schizophrenia patients. One was a 23-year old man who had been hospitalized for a first episode of schizophrenia. While in the hospital he developed a severe case of pneumonia, which was treated with the antibiotic minocycline. Two weeks later, his schizophrenia symptoms resolved along with his pneumonia.” Is it only this type of antibiotic or is it all of them? This was this man’s first episode so I wonder if that has something to do with it also.
The article says there was a second person: “The other was a 61-year old man who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 20. During his most recent hospitalization for it, he developed a bedsore that was treated with minocycline. Two weeks later, the bedsore healed, and minocycline was discontinued. The patient’s schizophrenia symptoms worsened. Minocycline was resumed; within three days, the patient’s schizophrenia symptoms improved.” It has nothing to do with just the first time so this is pretty exciting news. Of course they will need more research. Although something made it work twice.
The article goes on to say: “I was surprised by these developments,’ the psychiatrist-Tsuyoshi Miyaoka, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at Japan’s Shimane University School of Medicine- told Psychiatric News. ‘Could minocycline have antipsychotic properties? I wondered.” It must be just this one antibiotic. I only take antibiotics when I get a sinus infection at least twice a year. I never feel different except I am sick. Maybe this one antibiotic does have antipsychotic properties.
In the article they go on to talk about how they gave this antibiotic to patients who had severe schizophrenia and it worked even one stayed out in the community. It even helps with negative symptoms and a lot of schizophrenia patients hate those negative symptoms they cannot get rid of. “So what about this antibiotic is leading to hope that it can be a weapon against schizophrenia, and especially the usually intractable negative symptoms and cognitive deficits of the illness? ‘We don’t really know for sure,’ Kelly acknowledged. ‘But minocycline is known to be capable of countering inflammation and of crossing the blood-barrier into the brain, and there is growing evidence that inflammation might play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. So minocycline might be able to counter schizophrenia by countering inflammation in the brain.” It is just this antibiotic. To help with negative symptoms would be an improvement in the fight of schizophrenia.
They are not stopping here there are more randomized trials going on to see if this really works. “Since all [experimental drugs for negative symptoms or cognitive deficits in schizophrenia] have failed to date, you’ve got to bet that the next one will fail as well… ‘But…if minocycline has efficacy for negative symptoms, cognitive impairment, or both, that would be terrific…and transformative for the field.” A person can only hope that it will bring relief to those that have negative symptoms. A last word from the doctor that found this antibiotic property: “From our experience and clinical research, I believe that minocycline will turn out to be a truly revolutionary treatment for schizophrenia,’ Miyaoka declared.” A lot of things are found out by accident we can only hope this is one of them.  Please do not try and get an infection.  Please wait till they find out if it works or not. JUST A REMINDER THAT THE RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW ADDRESS: OUR NEW HOME IS: http://mhcd.org/blog