Brain and nervous system effects range from mood disruption, such as depression, to behavioral outbursts in children with ADHD and autism, to triggering of
hallucinations in people with schizophrenia and mania in people with bipolar illness.
In the new study, Soderling, postdoctoral researcher Il Hwan Kim, and their team characterized three brain abnormalities in the Arp2 / 3 mice that also
appear in people with schizophrenia.
Leweke's team also found anandamide levels lowest
in people with schizophrenia who used cannabis more frequently, suggesting it may disrupt the system in other ways too.
A new study from Parker's lab and the lab of Nandakumar Narayanan at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine finds that stimulating the cerebellum in rats with schizophrenia - like thinking problems normalizes brain activity in the frontal cortex and corrects the rats» ability to estimate the passage of time — a cognitive deficit that is
characteristic in people with schizophrenia.
Yet MRI scans of the 1 - year - old juveniles — equivalent in age to a 5 to 7 - year - old human child — revealed that their brains had features similar to those
seen in people with schizophrenia, including less grey matter in the cortex and enlarged ventricles.
However, recent laboratory studies have shown that hedonic experience is actually
intact in people with schizophrenia, calling for new approaches to better understand these motivational deficits.
One gene, called ZNF659, showed
over-methylation in people with schizophrenia and under - methylation in those who were bipolar, suggesting that the conditions might result from opposing gene activity (Human Molecular Genetics, DOI: 10.1093 / hmg / ddr416).
Sure enough, when Markus Leweke of the University of Cologne, Germany, and Andrea Giuffrida and Danielle Piomelli of the University of California, Irvine, looked at levels of the natural cannabis - like substance anandamide, they were
higher in people with schizophrenia than in healthy controls.
Neuroimaging studies have found that certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, are
smaller in people with schizophrenia — a devastating psychiatric illness with high heritability.
«Specifically, this paper shows that parts of the brain's cortex develop
differently in people with schizophrenia,» said first author Dr. Aaron F. Alexander - Bloch, from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Early research suggests that taking DHA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and alpha - lipoic acid for 2 years does not prevent symptoms from
returning in people with schizophrenia who stop taking their medication.
Current use of second - generation antipsychotics may increase risk of pneumonia in people with schizophrenia
Review: no clear benefit from information and communication technology - delivered support and education compared with standard care in people with schizophrenia
Early response to treatment predicts remission and recovery at 3 years in people with schizophrenia
Bupropion reduces nicotine dependence and increases smoking cessation compared with
control in people with schizophrenia, without affecting positive, negative or depressive symptoms.
Antipsychotic medications, a mainstay of treatment for schizophrenia, alleviated some of the animals» symptoms.In the new study, Soderling, postdoctoral researcher Il Hwan Kim, and their team characterized three brain abnormalities in the Arp2 / 3 mice that also
appear in people with schizophrenia.
Antipsychotic medications do not differ substantially in ability to reduce violent behaviour in people with schizophrenia
In people with schizophrenia, for example, the ability to perceive another person's emotional state canaccurately predict social functioning more broadly.
Two RCTs reported cannabis use outcomes following pharmacological interventions: one in people with major depression, alcohol dependence and cannabis abuse diagnoses (n = 22; fluoxetine vs placebo) and one
in people with schizophrenia and cannabis and / or cocaine use disorders (n = 28; olanzapine vs risperidone).