I'm 43 and schizophrenic. According to the statistics, I'll be dead in 17 years

That is the title of this article I am reviewing today. "'You’ve got a choice. You can either buy cigarettes, or get food to see you through the week. For most people it’s a no-brainer. Of course you’d buy food. But if you’re suffering from schizophrenia, living on the disability support pension and facing other psycho-social challenges, then the choice isn’t so clear. 'Some of my patients will choose cigarettes over food, my clinical specialist nurse told me. They also drink huge amounts of coffee. I’ve even seen people eating dried coffee from the tin.' So what’s going on here? I’m schizophrenic, and aside from dealing with the symptoms of the illness, there’s another statistic which I’m struggling to come to grips with. People with schizophrenia tend to live between 14 and 20 years less than the general community. 'With schizophrenia, my thoughts can be like pieces of a mismatched jigsaw puzzle'  Joshua Gliddon

People are often afraid to ask questions about my illness. In Schizophrenia Awareness Week, I want to set the record straight – it’s nothing to fear Every year, 9,000 Australians with a serious mental illness will die prematurely. We face higher incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, very high levels of unemployment, and many of us are in temporary housing. It’s not a good mix.

I’m also 43. The average life expectancy for a non-Indigenous Australian male is around 80 years, a bit longer for women. I smoke, and weigh more than I should. According to the statistics, I’ve got about another 17 years left in me. That’s quite sobering." That is the truth when I smoked most of my social security check went on cigarettes and I was thin for that reason. Coffee I had to quit because I drank so much it affected the Moban I was taking and my symptoms would show up. For me coffee was harder to quit than cigarettes my body went through changes when I quit.  Now that I am on Geodon I can drink coffee again but I do not crave like before I only have two cups in the morning and that is enough for me now.
The article goes on to say: "Professor Amanda Baker, a senior researcher at the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) specialising in schizophrenia, told me there are a number of reasons why people with schizophrenia have reduced life expectancies. The big ones are poor lifestyle, unemployment and social isolation. She said that around 85% of people with schizophrenia smoke, compared with approximately 20% of the general population. One of the main reasons people smoke, she said, is that the medications used to treat the illness are often sedative and dulling, and so people use tobacco and caffeine heavily because they’re stimulants. The medications also have other side effects. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the anti-psychotics used to treat schizophrenia have a negative effect on metabolism. When I was first put on Olanzapine, a potent anti-psychotic, I put on about 25 kilos in a matter of months. I’ve moved onto a different medication since then, but it’s also weight unfriendly, and despite doing moderate exercise, I’ve never been able to shake the weight I gained. According to Baker, until recently there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to the physical health aspects of serious mental illness. Clinicians didn’t discourage patients from smoking because there was a pervasive attitude that you 'don’t upset the schizophrenics.'" When I quit smoking I put on a lot of weight I lost a lot by walking although the most recently lost was because of the three surgeries for lung cancer. I am trying not to put it back on again.
The article ends: "Not so long ago it was also OK to smoke in psychiatric institutions. Public facilities have clamped down on that, but smoking is still common in private hospitals.
Is there anything that can be done?  'People with schizophrenia are generally more dependent, and have less coping skills than the general population, and that makes it very hard for them to give up or make lifestyle changes,' Baker said. Brain’s immune cells hyperactive in schizophrenia New research links the onset of psychosis to the brain’s inflammatory response.  So the initiative needs to come from both patients and their care team. While psychiatrists in the past were only focused on medication and the mind, these days, said Baker, they are being encouraged to have a wider view of their patient’s health, both physical and mental. What needs to happen is a greater focus by clinicians on the overall wellbeing of their patients. Baker said this is finally occurring. 'Psychiatrists are being encouraged to look after the physical, as well as mental health of their patients, and that means addressing smoking, as well as diet and exercise,' she said. That’s a good start, but for the meantime, people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia will continue to die young. And that is a major downside of being sick.'" I know if they pass this new tax on cigarettes it is the mental ill that some just will not quit and use all their money to buy the cigarettes.  I know I used to be the same way.  I had  a reason to quit because I wanted my granddaughter to always come over my house.  My daughter did not want her around smoking.  Which I see now was good.

High Cholesterol May Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia

That is the title of this article I am writing about. "TORONTO — While having high cholesterol may open individuals to cardiovascular risks, there is evidence that elevated lipid levels may actually improve cognition in schizophrenia patients. The finding was based on an assessment of the breakthrough 2005 CATIE study (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Clinical Effectiveness), according to Henry Nasrallah, MD, chairman of the Department of the Neurology and Psychiatry at St. Louis University School of Medicine, in Missouri. “If [patients] had higher cholesterol, they had higher cognitive scores,” Nasrallah said during a presentation at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting here. He added this also applied to high levels of triglycerides, another type of fat found in the blood. Better cognition was also associated with high HDL cholesterol levels." What does cholesterol have to do with cognition?  I do know a lot of people with schizophrenia would love to have better cognition in exchange for high cholesterol.  Although they would have to risk cardiovascular risks.
The article goes on to say: "The CATIE study also found that patients who gained weight while on antipsychotics also tended to do have better scores on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), a common measure used to measure schizophrenia severity.  'No matter which antipsychotic [a patient took], if they gained even a little bit of weight, they did better,' he said. Those 'that kept their weight or lost weight didn't do as well.' However, he added that weight gain itself was not associated with improved cognition. Nasrallah noted that there are currently no treatments available shown to improve cognition in schizophrenia, an unmet medical need. However, the prospect of having psychiatrists suggest that schizophrenia patients maintain high cholesterol levels puts them in a bind as such levels increase cardiovascular risks." I sure wouldn't  want to gain weight to do better. I am trying to lose what I have gained over the years.  I am finally doing good I walk at least three miles a day. It sure would put psychiatrists in a bind.  Now that they are mixing health in with your treatment of mental illness.
The article ends with: "As to why high lipid levels may benefit cognition in schizophrenia patients, Nasrallah suggested that lipids play an important role in cell wall structure, and may also be good for brain circuitry. In response to a question from an audience member, Nasrallah said that omega-3 fatty acids may also serve as a protective factor for the brain, though he suggested that they are more beneficial in stemming brain inflammation rather than improving cognition."Well we know why now.  Although I would rather have normal cholesterol.  I took  a cholesterol drug once and it was bad that I have never taken them again.  Now instead of lard I use olive oil and that has helped my cholesterol numbers greatly.

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.

The Research of Schizophrenia

Being diagnosed with a schizoaffective disorder, I have not taken into account how much I have grown to learn about schizophrenia or its symptoms, both positive and "negative symptoms. As it stands, I was educated to understand I have positive symptoms, hallucinations and or delusions both auditory and ocular. Yet as I read this article "Mysteries of the Mind…" I find that there are negatives to the schizophrenic disorder as well, such as social withdrawal and or depression. As I took this into regard I also thought of other people who have the schizophrenic disorder and further reading I found that such people living with this disorder are not considered intelligent by any means yet having a high IQ and becoming ill with such the symptoms of schizophrenia, you may still be considered smart. There are brilliant people who suffer from schizophrenia yet many individuals were not given the chance to use their minds in any creative means to prove that they have a higher intellect, as opposed to others who are above the norm.

There are physical reasons stated as to why schizophrenics are as they are. There are neurons that don’t function within the brain, which are critical for the "thinking rhythm" though a schizophrenic has not the normal brain when living with such a disease.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/health/mysteries-of-the-mind-researchers-take-aim-at-schizophrenias-thinking-problems-672293/

As I continue to read about schizophrenics ability to think and learn, I begin to wonder what I would be like without medication, derisive, lost with the inability to solve any problems, the reading progressed, in time, I felt berated, underrated and inefficient at any of my own endeavors. I began to understand that as experiments proceed to help schizophrenics overcome malady, I learn that there is a lack of communication within the brain itself, which may cause the symptoms both positive and negative and the learning and memory of any patient disorganized.

These are physical symptoms and there may be no real physical cure for the disease, though scientists have hope as many people have that a cure can be found. Mental illness such as schizophrenia isn’t the only illness which may cause disruption of thought, yet it can be understood through many years of observation and research that it is harder for those diagnosed with schizophrenia to learn because of their mental distraction and the delusions they suffer from. There are new drugs which are in the trial stage which help control the depression and lack of energy in such the mentally ill , yet as researchers stated, it is a complex illness "which affects the most complex biological organism in the known universe…".

Written By Donald S.

Computerized Training to Help Schizophrenia Patients

I came across this article on the web. A new study conducted at the University of California-San Francisco alongside with San Francisco Medical Center. The study: “showed that patients with schizophrenia were better able to distinguish their own thoughts from reality after completing 80 hours of intense computerized cognitive training exercises.” It is different from the memory training DVDs I use. Although they are made by the same company called Posit Science Corporation. The people they used for the study were 31 with schizophrenia and a control group of 15 participants without a mental illness.
It interested me because I read about schizophrenics that have a hard time distinguishing from what is real and what is not. “The study assessed patients before and after a 16-week period. The study noted that those who completed 80 hours of intense computerized training within the time were better able to decipher between what was reality and what was not.” I can only remember when I relapsed from not enough medication is my system. It is hard to know what is real and not real.
I remember it being hard to ride the bus and even talking to people when you are like that you do not know if it is real or not. What this training is supposed to do is: “….. intended to increase activation in the medial prefrontal cortex, a key part of the brain.” It is part of the brain that controls decisions. Well sixteen of the schizophrenics received cognitive computer training. The other fifteen played computer games. Fifteen participants just went through MRI scanning with the 31 with schizophrenia.
The study found that: “Participants who received the computerized cognitive training were able to better determine reality than those who played computer games. As well, the MRI revealed those who had the computerized training also had increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that controls decisions.” That is big news if you distinguish what is real and what is not. What it means: “Interestingly, greater activation within the medial prefrontal cortex was also linked with better social functioning six months after the training.” That mean you do not have to keep doing it over it sticks in there.
It would be nice to try if you are having some of the negative symptoms I talked about last week. I know a lot of schizophrenics would like to try and see it work.

More News about Jared Loughner

Well last week I wrote about Jared Loughner. I shared how I was not violent unless i used alcohol. Well in a blog I was reading the author says: “The risk of violence in someone with schizophrenia escalates 28 percent with co-occurring substance abuse problem, according to studies.” I believe this is true. The same blog says: she does not want Jared Loughner to be labeled schizophrenic like her. I feel the same way, when I first heard the story of what he did I thought here we go more stigma, because of what he did. Most schizophrenics are not violent. The news says he spent time in his basement surfing the internet and smoking marijuana. Some say he is more of a psychopath rather than schizophrenic. In another article the author a lawyer whom has schizophrenia, believes it may help get changes for the better. She understands the stigma. “As tragic as the (TUCSON) story is, maybe it will call attention to mental health, a few decades ago; people with alcoholism or senility were locked up in mental hospitals. Surely things have improved?” Although I cannot understand with all the publicity the case has received that no one has diagnosed Jared Loughner. He did not even plead insanity in his first time going to court. You would think his lawyers would. Whatever happens I do hope that it will bring good changes.

Paranoid Schizophrenic II

As I wrote in earlier blogs, I was sentenced to the State Hospital for a crime committed while I had a mental illness. Now I will tell you about some of the symptoms I had before I committed the crime. My first mental distress happened in prison. The first time I ever seen or talked to a psychiatrist was there. I talked that time and told him what I believed was happening to me. He put me on halcyon a sleeping medication to help me sleep. I do not know why but that pill at night helped be get back to being normal again. I was released from prison six months later because my appeal finally came through. After court where I was set free finally, I was going to leave town. Then a computer training class opened up and I joined it. It was intensive training for three months. It was the last week at the class, and I was supposed to bring juice to a celebration party for completing the class. I rode the bus to go to the party when I became paranoid. I never made it and just went back home. I was not the same after that. I would go outside and see things, which I thought were signs telling me to go this way. I would walk around the block. Then just go home and lay down and not move, until that night. Finally not understanding what was going on I went to the liquor store and bought a six pack and a bottle of tequila. I thought getting drunk would fix things. Instead I committed a crime and wrestled with the police when they came to arrest me. Then I was sentenced to the state hospital.