That is the title of this article I am writing about today. "People who suffer from severe schizophrenia have very different brain networks compared to others with milder schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or no mental illness, according to new research from Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Researchers say the findings confirm mounting evidence that schizophrenia is in fact more than one brain disorder. Finding ways to help this particular group of people with schizophrenia is a priority as recovery is unlikely, even up to 20 years after the initial diagnosis. Social isolation, lack of work and relationships, and chronic disability are very common,' says Dr. Aristotle Voineskos, senior author on the paper and Director of the Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition at CAMH. Approximately one in 100 people are diagnosed with schizophrenia.The condition is generally known for symptoms of delusions and hallucinations, which are typically treated with antipsychotic medications." They seem the same although I know that my paranoid schizophrenia is different than other people's schizophrenia. I do not suffer from most the of the negative symptoms that others suffer from.
The article goes on to say: "However, lack of motivation and social withdrawal, known as negative symptoms, are extremely common as well. As of now, there is no treatment for negative symptoms, yet they have the greatest impact on a person’s daily functioning once the psychosis is under control. About one in five people with schizophrenia experience these negative symptoms in a pronounced way, said lead author Dr. Anne Wheeler, CAMH postdoctoral fellow. The study involved magnetic resonance brain imaging (MRI) of 128 people with schizophrenia and 130 healthy individuals at two sites, and with 39 patients with bipolar disorder and 43 healthy individuals at a third site. Bipolar patients suffer from psychotic symptoms but not negative symptoms, so these patients served as an additional comparison group." If I wasn't able to work I do not know what I would do. I not only make money although it also passes time which is important to me. To make me feel free.
The article ends:"We found alterations in a number of relationships between brain regions among those with more severe schizophrenia compared with the other groups, including those with less severe schizophrenia,' said Voineskos. 'This provides strong evidence that schizophrenia is not just one brain disorder.' The findings also confirmed results from previous research from his team showing changes in the white matter tissues connecting those same regions in the brain, among those with more severe schizophrenia. These impaired networks are important to the brain processes related to negative symptoms and social function that patients experience, the authors write. Through this study, specific brain circuits can be targeted to develop new therapeutic approaches for negative symptoms and social impairment. More research is currently under way at CAMH using virtual reality technology and brain stimulation." It would be great if they can help those people who suffer everyday from negative symptoms. You only hope these studies end up helping instead of just talking about it.
Showing posts with label Brain Imaging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brain Imaging. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Different Mental Disorders Show Similar Gray Matter Loss
That is the title of this article I am writing about. "Researchers have discovered a common pattern of gray matter loss in a spectrum of psychiatric disorders, ranging from schizophrenia to depression to addiction, according to a new meta-analysis of brain-imaging studies by Stanford University School of Medicine.
'The idea that these disorders share some common brain architecture and that some functions could be abnormal across so many of them is intriguing,' said Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Previously, brain imaging studies tended to focus on one psychiatric disorder in isolation, whereas the Stanford researchers “have stepped back from the trees to look at the forest and see a pattern in that forest that wasn’t apparent when you just look at the trees,” Insel said. The analysis of 193 peer-reviewed papers shows a loss of gray matter in three brain structures that, although physically separate, participate in a network associated with high-level functions, including planning and decision-making. The findings call into question the common practice of distinguishing psychiatric disorders by their symptoms rather than their underlying brain pathology." This is very important to the people that lose some high-level functions. We have come far in research now we have to find ways to use it to help people.
The article goes on to say:"'In many of these published studies we reviewed, researchers have tended to interpret their biological findings in terms of the one disorder they’re focusing on,' said Amit Etkin, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and the study’s senior author.
'We tried to ask a basic question that hasn’t been asked: Is there any common biological basis for mental illness?'
To find out, he and his research team gathered data from 193 separate studies containing, in all, magnetic-resonance images of the brains of 7,381 patients falling into six diagnostic categories: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder and a cluster of related anxiety disorders.
They compared the images with those from 8,511 healthy control subjects, and identified three separate brain structures, several centimeters apart from one another, with a diminished volume of gray matter, the brain tissue that serves to process information. Gray matter loss in the three brain structures was similar across patients with different mental disorders, the researchers found." if they can find out why these people with mental illness lose that gray matter it would be great. Especially if they can stop it from happening.
The article ends with:"These structures can be viewed as the alarm bell of the brain, Etkin said. “They work together, signaling to other brain regions when reality deviates from expectations — that something important and unpredicted has happened, or something important has failed to happen.”
Further analysis showed that gray-matter shrinkage in the three implicated brain structures was independent of any medication effects or overlapping psychiatric conditions.
In addition to the gray-matter loss in those three key areas, people with major depression also had gray-matter loss in other structures, including the hippocampus and amygdala, two important regions involved in storing memories and processing emotion, respectively.
Schizophrenia also featured reduced gray matter in several other structures, as well as an increase in gray matter in a region called the striatum, which Etkin suggested may be due more to the antipsychotic medications than the disease itself." Well the medication is not making this happen. We have to find a way to stop it from happening than people can lead healthier and better lives.
'The idea that these disorders share some common brain architecture and that some functions could be abnormal across so many of them is intriguing,' said Thomas Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Previously, brain imaging studies tended to focus on one psychiatric disorder in isolation, whereas the Stanford researchers “have stepped back from the trees to look at the forest and see a pattern in that forest that wasn’t apparent when you just look at the trees,” Insel said. The analysis of 193 peer-reviewed papers shows a loss of gray matter in three brain structures that, although physically separate, participate in a network associated with high-level functions, including planning and decision-making. The findings call into question the common practice of distinguishing psychiatric disorders by their symptoms rather than their underlying brain pathology." This is very important to the people that lose some high-level functions. We have come far in research now we have to find ways to use it to help people.
The article goes on to say:"'In many of these published studies we reviewed, researchers have tended to interpret their biological findings in terms of the one disorder they’re focusing on,' said Amit Etkin, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford and the study’s senior author.
'We tried to ask a basic question that hasn’t been asked: Is there any common biological basis for mental illness?'
To find out, he and his research team gathered data from 193 separate studies containing, in all, magnetic-resonance images of the brains of 7,381 patients falling into six diagnostic categories: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder and a cluster of related anxiety disorders.
They compared the images with those from 8,511 healthy control subjects, and identified three separate brain structures, several centimeters apart from one another, with a diminished volume of gray matter, the brain tissue that serves to process information. Gray matter loss in the three brain structures was similar across patients with different mental disorders, the researchers found." if they can find out why these people with mental illness lose that gray matter it would be great. Especially if they can stop it from happening.
The article ends with:"These structures can be viewed as the alarm bell of the brain, Etkin said. “They work together, signaling to other brain regions when reality deviates from expectations — that something important and unpredicted has happened, or something important has failed to happen.”
Further analysis showed that gray-matter shrinkage in the three implicated brain structures was independent of any medication effects or overlapping psychiatric conditions.
In addition to the gray-matter loss in those three key areas, people with major depression also had gray-matter loss in other structures, including the hippocampus and amygdala, two important regions involved in storing memories and processing emotion, respectively.
Schizophrenia also featured reduced gray matter in several other structures, as well as an increase in gray matter in a region called the striatum, which Etkin suggested may be due more to the antipsychotic medications than the disease itself." Well the medication is not making this happen. We have to find a way to stop it from happening than people can lead healthier and better lives.
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