IQ takes a hit with longer lasting psychosis

That is the title of this article I am writing about. Last week I did on how the higher IQ the less chance to develop schizophrenia.  This one is about how we lose IQ by having psychosis longer. "A 10-year-long Scandinavian study has shed light on a small group of schizophrenic patients who suffer a greater decline in IQ over time than most patients.
Researchers at the University of Oslo and Yale have discovered that people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia often have a more positive illness trajectory than was previously thought. However, a subgroup of the study’s patients who experienced repeated psychosis after receiving treatment demonstrated significant deterioration of verbal recall and working memory ability over time. In other words, those who had a longer duration of psychosis after starting treatment saw their IQs drop more than those who experienced a shorter duration of psychosis.
These findings emphasize the need for patients at higher risk to be monitored more closely in order to detect episodes before they manifest themselves, according to secondary author and University of Oslo professor of neuropsychology Kjetil Sundet. He added that the ultimate goal in treating schizophrenic patients is to notice these warning signs before the onset of even the first psychotic episode." It is the longer you have psychosis after starting treatment.  I think we lose some just in having schizophrenia.  I know my IQ when I went to high school and when I started college were different.
The article continues: "So far, this study is the longest lasting of its kind to investigate whether the course of IQ is affected by duration of psychosis before treatment and duration of psychosis after treatment. Researchers found that the overall IQ of all 89 patients studied remained stable over time. But when they divided the sample into subgroups based on duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and duration after treatment (DAT), they discovered that the length of DUP did not affect cognitive ability, while the length of DAT did correlate with cognitive decline. Patients with the longest DAT performed significantly worse on tests of intellectual ability over time compared to those with the shortest DAT. Some patients in the study saw a slight increase in IQ, which explains the overall consistency in IQ.
Additionally, the group with the longest DAT had a slightly lower baseline IQ at the start of the study than other groups, suggesting that lower IQ may indicate increased risk for a more severe course of illness.
This study was inspired by the Early Treatment and Intervention in Psychosis Study, led by co-primary investigators Svein Friis, professor of psychiatry at University of Oslo, and Thomas McGlashan, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Yale University. The main goal of that project was to find out if an Early Detection and Early Intervention program could reduce duration of untreated psychosis, and if that could improve quality of life outcomes, according to Friis.
'Without [McGlashan], this large-scale study would hardly have been possible,” Sundet said. “He inspired and enabled his colleagues to do this research.'" They need to treat people with psychosis sooner than.  That would explain to me why I lost some IQ.  I was put in jail with my psychoiss was going on and they did not give me medication until I was sentenced and went to the state hospital about six months down the road.
The article ends with: "
Although the results of this study do not provide any causal explanations of the relationship between longer illness duration after treatment and cognitive decline, the authors have offered several possible hypotheses. Because patients with greater intellectual impairments had a lower baseline IQ to begin with, they hypothesized that those patients may have possessed a lower cognitive reserve in general, hindering their ability to inhibit psychotic symptoms.
Alternatively, the researchers have proposed the existence of a distinct subtype of schizophrenia that causes more severe cognitive decline as well as longer psychotic episodes. That hypothesis is based on recent studies on certain patients’ genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia.
Though the findings of this study fall in line with previous schizophrenia-spectrum disorder studies, the study relied largely on human memory for its data, adding an element of uncertainty to the results.
According to Sundet, the general opinion of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders was much bleaker 20 years ago at the beginning of the study, when it was thought that having schizophrenia necessarily meant a major interference with normal life. However, nowadays most patients can live a good life with treatment and medication, and some people suffer only one episode their entire lives, he added.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia affects 1.1 percent of the U.S. population ages 18 and older. "My memory of numbers is all I have that works great. Remembering anything else and I have to keep reminding myself to remember and that does not been I will. although with numbers I can remember them very well.

High IQ May Protect Against Schizophrenia

That is the title of this article I am writing about. "In people with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia, having high intelligence may help protect them from developing the severe mental disorder, according to a new study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and Lund University in Sweden.  In fact, people with a lower IQ (intelligence quotient) than their siblings had the greatest risk for developing schizophrenia.  The research appears to contradict the popular belief that schizophrenia and brilliance are typically linked.  'If you’re really smart, your genes for schizophrenia don’t have much of a chance of acting,' said first author Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., professor of psychiatry and human and molecular genetics in the Department of Psychiatry, VCU School of Medicine." I do not know if I follow this belief.  John Nash is not the only one that has a high IQ also Ellen Saks.  If you follow Colorado and they do find James Holmes not guilty by reason of insanity there will be another.
The article goes on to say: "'What really predicted risk for schizophrenia is how much you deviate from the predicted IQ that we get from your relatives. If you’re quite a bit lower, that carries a high risk for schizophrenia. Not achieving the IQ that you should have based on your genetic constitution and family background seems to most strongly predispose for schizophrenia.'  Just like those without the disease, people with schizophrenia vary widely in their intelligence levels. Kendler added that low IQ is one of many risk factors for schizophrenia.  For the study, researchers assessed the IQs of more than 1.2 million Swedish males (ages 18-to-20) born between 1951 and 1975. Schizophrenia-related hospitalization was tracked for 24 years until 2010. Subjects with a lower IQ than their siblings were at the greatest risk for developing schizophrenia." If you have a lower IQ than your brothers and sisters than you have a greater chance of developing schizophrenia.
The article ends: "Kendler noted that environmental factors that may lower IQ, such as intrauterine experience, childhood trauma, or early drug use, could contribute to the increased risk.
Having a high IQ, however, doesn’t completely eliminate the risk for schizophrenia. In fact, there are several well-known, brilliant and creative people who have suffered from schizophrenia, including math prodigy John Nash, whose story was made famous in the film “A Beautiful Mind.”
'The question is, might we see some upward bump at that high level of intelligence where really brilliant people have increased risk for the disease and we show no such trend,' Kendler said.
Schizophrenia is one of the most severe and rarest of the mental health disorders, occurring in about one in 100 people. Symptoms of the disease include hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, cognitive impairment, social withdrawal, self-neglect, and loss of motivation and initiative." I never lost my motivation or I would not have been able to complete college. I lost some of my smarts though since I was in high school that is why I had a harder time in college. I believe that no matter what type of IQ you have it is still a bad disease and hard to tell when you are slipping into psychosis.

High IQ Runs in Families with Psychiatric Issues

That is the title of this article I am writing about.  “Schizophrenia is often found in families with high rates of psychological illness.  When one member of a family has schizophrenia, the chances of other members developing psychological problems, including schizophrenia and psychosis, increase.  Some of the factors that are considered when analyzing risk for illness are family history, life stressors, trauma, and IQ.  Each of these had a unique relationship with risk and schizophrenia.” I am hoping that is not true as all I have is my grandchildren and I sure do not want them to develop it.  It does not run in my family as the only one that had is a cousin on my dad’s side.  As far as IQ my mom had some college and my dad is just smart.  I have two brothers and two sisters and none of them developed any sign of mental illness.  I think it is the hard drugs I took such as PCP.
Although the article says: “In a recent study, Kim W. Verwij of the Department of Psychiatry at the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands sought to explore the influence and evidence of IQ in families with schizophrenia. Using a sample 696 individuals with schizophrenia and their siblings (766), Verwij compared IQ scores to those of 517 individuals with no history of schizophrenia or psychiatric issues.  Researchers collected data from all participants without schizophrenia and scored them separately.  Those with schizophrenia also completed IQ tests and their results were analyzed independently” I guess my schizophrenia must be a fluke and that is what I am hoping for because I never want one family member to go through what I have.
It goes on to say: “The results show that siblings of those with schizophrenia only had elevated IQs if they themselves had any history of mental health issues, or if other family did.  Those siblings who did not have family history, excluding the member with schizophrenia, who also had a family member with mental health issues, had higher IQ scores that the individuals with schizophrenia and no family history. Verwij believes that this suggests a high familial influence on psychiatric impairment in the participants with family illness, while those without may be more influenced by external and variable factors, such as trauma, premature birth, or other stressors. Not only do these factors create a ripe environment for psychological impairment, but they also increase vulnerability for intellectual and cognitive disability.  This study provides much needed insight into the unique association between IQ and genetic predisposition for schizophrenia.  Verweij added, ‘Since the association between IQ scores and family history of psychiatric disorder in siblings is not extensively investigated, more research is needed to further address this question’” This always lead myself to the question how I received my mental illness I know that I have it.  I went through it. I still think something else happened and I really hope that is true.   Other words I have my questions although I do not think they will ever be answered.

Memory & Recovery

This is a follow up to an earlier blog that Donald wrote.  The negative symptoms that people with schizophrenia have make it hard for them to hold down a job that is what this article says.  They say after getting schizophrenia we lose 11/2 standard deviations of your IQ “if you start out with an IQ of 160 and you lose 11/2 standard deviations, you’re down to 145, and you might still be pretty well-off in certain areas.  As I spoke in an earlier blog I could have had my GED at the age of seventeen although I was too young.
I dropped out after finishing the ninth grade.  I started the tenth grade and was in algebra and told them it was too hard and wanted to go to another class.  It wasn’t although I was just trying to make things easier for me.  I went to the other math class for a day and that is when I dropped out of school.  It was dumb I know.  When I finally went back to college, math was the hardest for me.  My tutor would say he gets and after he walks out he does not remember anything.  Yet I am good at remembering numbers and words if I try.

In geography in college the class as a whole was not doing well.  The teacher had already talked to me after finding out I had a mental illness she was going to let me do a no credit and take the class over.  I said no I will do it.  She gave the class the test to study and I took it and memorized it all except the places in Colorado.  I studied that test at work and in my spare time.  I finally took the test and the classmates were just say geez when she was grading my test because I had so many right. I passed the class.
 All except the where the places were at in Colorado.  You have to remember I was locked up for almost a decade and I did not travel I had forgot where everything was.  It took me about five years to remember Denver again.  I have finally learned and can ride and know which bus to take to get anywhere.  I know I lost some of what I had and if I would of went to college before my mental illness I would have done a lot better.   I can memorize a lot but not math. On a lighter note do you know why we forget when we walk in to another room to do or get something? 
This article talks about why.  “The research provides strong evidence that entering a doorway serves as an “event boundary” that forces working memory to update itself as a result of moving into another room, Radvansky explains.  This location-based updating makes it more difficult to recall the activities or decisions made in a different room.”  I know I came into this room for something although I do not remember now.  We are not losing our minds.
I also work on brain training exercises.  One thing that I have is my memory and I do not want to lose that.  My mental illness is enough of a handicap.  I feel for other schizophrenics that lost a lot more than me and cannot work even when they try.