Researchers identify molecular link between schizophrenia and diabetes risk

That is the title of this article I am writing about. " It has long been known that psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, have been associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. In a new study published online in The FASEB Journal, a UMass Medical School research team, led by Rita Bortell, PhD, research professor of molecular medicine and Agata Jurczyk, PhD, instructor in molecular medicine, found that a shared gene (or genes) may underlie the co-occurrence of both diseases. Mutations in Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) have been strongly associated with major psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, but not diabetes. This study presented the first evidence to indicate that the DISC1 gene also plays a novel, unexpected role in pancreatic beta cell survival and function. It is also the first to provide a molecular link for a prevalence of type 2 diabetes in individuals with psychiatric disorders.  To make this discovery, Dr. Bortell and her team genetically manipulated a group of mice to disrupt the DISC1 gene only in the mouse's pancreatic beta cells, not in the brain. The mice with the disrupted DISC1 gene showed an increase in beta cell death, less insulin secretion and impaired glucose regulation compared to normal mice. When these researchers studied cultured beta cells in which DISC1 expression was suppressed, they found that DISC1 works by inhibiting the activity of a specific protein, GSK3β. Lowered GSK3β activity was already known to be critical for beta cell function and survival. The research team further tested the validity of this association by inhibiting GSK3β function directly. This resulted in improved beta cell survival and restored normal glucose tolerance in mice with disrupted DISC1. These results uncover an unexpected role for DISC1 in normal beta cell physiology and suggest that DISC1 may regulate blood glucose independently of its function in the brain." More reasons for me to work harder so it does not come back.  I will do anything not to have to take that pill for diabetes.
The article goes on to say: "'It is known that individuals with psychiatric disorders may be predisposed to developing type 2 diabetes due to several interacting factors including genetics, lifestyle and medications. Based on our mouse studies, our data predict that DISC1 disruption could tip the balance toward disease," Bortell said, adding that it remains to be demonstrated in humans. "Our hope is that the association we've found linking disrupted DISC1 to both diabetes and psychiatric disorders may uncover mechanisms to improve therapies to alleviate suffering caused by both illnesses, which are extraordinarily costly, very common and quite debilitating.'"I hope they can soon find an answer to both diseases. It reeks havoc on the body with diabetes.
The article ends: "Bortell said the study points out the potential importance of evaluating new antipsychotic medications for their effects on pancreatic beta cells in addition to the brain. Diligent monitoring for diabetes in those with Psychiatric disorders is further warranted by the fact that many antipsychotic medications are also associated with an increased risk of diabetes. "We are also intrigued by the fact that diabetic individuals have higher rates of depression, which suggests that additional molecular links in brain and pancreatic beta cells may yet be discovered," Bortell said.
The full study can be found online in The FASEB Journal and will be published in print in February." The medications causes diabetes we are more susceptible to diabetes. How can we win you just have to keep fighting for what you believe you want for your life.

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.

Time to Know the Truth

It is said, “Age is wisdom”, and as we grow older, “how time passes by”. I am a 56 year old mental health consumer and I live this experience of age and time, with curiosity and wonder, even as I am living with a mental health illness. Why? I have missed out on the experience of education, growing with good friends, understanding the world as it traverses through time and the experience of work in my youth and early adult years. I missed out on the glory of time since I was young because I was in a hurry to race the clouds in the sky, to experience what I thought I never would. I was wrong. As longevity increases I find that age and time has a great impact on my present life and this is related to my mental health and age. As I have grown older, I think more carefully, without hallucinations and fears, as I have grown older, I care more about my health, eating healthier foods and taking earnest walks when I can without thinking about riding somewhere or calling someone to give me transportation. I care more about life without shouting at sky and I listen more attentively without closing my mind off to those who are trying to relate to me. There are some setbacks when it comes to relating age and mental illness; and its estimated that within 20 years there will be a greater number of adults, 55 years or older who will suffer from psychiatric disorders, which is a rate growing faster than our present population.
There are reasons that reflect both negative and positive reasons such being on the negative side, “aging baby boomers have a higher risk of developing depress, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders than people born before World War II.
Psychiatry Online Psychiatric News News Article In other words there is the greater risk of late onset mental illness, the positive side is there is improved treatment for mental illness and healthier life styles which will give patients with mental illness a greater chance to live into an old age. At this present time, consumers with serious mental illness have only a 20 – 25 year shorter lifespan than the greater population at large, also the reduced aspect of stigma against mental illness will cause older people to find treatment and accept their illness, without fear.
As we grow older we give in to intellect and wisdom, and as always should be the rule instead of the exception retreating from the fruits of time, hiding within the carousel of our illnesses.