Question:
Had a brain cat scan and an ecg a few years back in the middle of an
episode - everything normal. I think sz comes about from several or many
different causes - perhaps this research has found an organic degenerative
brain disease that causes sz?
Answer:
UCLA brain researchers using a powerful new analysis technique have created
the first images showing the devastating impact of schizophrenia on the
brain. The findings, published in the Sept. 25 issue of the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, show how a dynamic wave of tissue loss
engulfs the brains of schizophrenic patients in their teenage years.
The findings may have key diagnostic implications. Aided by a better
understanding of how psychosis develops, researchers can detect aberrant
loss early and treat patients as early as possible. Future medications might
fight the rapid loss of brain tissue, and their effectiveness could be
assessed using the imaging technique.
"This is the first study to visualize how schizophrenia develops in the
brain," said Paul Thompson, an assistant professor of neurology at the UCLA
School of Medicine and the study's chief investigator. "Scientists have been
perplexed about how schizophrenia progresses and whether there are any
physical changes in the brain. We were stunned to see a spreading wave of
tissue loss that began in a small region of the brain. It moved across the
brain like a forest fire, destroying more tissue as the disease progressed."
Scientists at UCLA and the National Institute of Mental Health employed
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to scan a group of teenagers
repeatedly as they developed schizophrenia. Using a new image analysis
method that detects very fine changes in the brain, the scientists detected
gray matter loss of more than 10 percent first in the parietal, or outer,
regions of the brain; this loss spread to engulf the rest of the brain over
five years.
Patients with the worst brain tissue loss also had the worst symptoms, which
included hallucinations, delusions, bizarre and psychotic thoughts, hearing
voices, and depression. Schizophrenia affects an estimated 1 percent of
Americans. Its causes are unknown, and the disease typically hits without
warning in the late teens or 20s.
Researchers also detected a mild loss of brain tissue in healthy teenagers.
Between ages 13 and 18, they lost about 1 percent gray matter per year in
the parietal cortices, the region where the spreading wave began. In
schizophrenics, this brain tissue loss gained momentum and swept into the
sensory and motor regions. The frontal eye fields lost tissue fastest, at
about 5 percent per year. These fields control eye movements, which often
are disturbed in schizophrenic patients.
In another first, the brain-mapping technique reveals underlying changes in
the brain's anatomical hardware as teenagers mature normally or develop
psychosis. The identification of previously unseen waves of loss and key
anatomical changes will allow scientists to establish powerful links between
cognitive and behavioral changes and rapid changes in underlying brain
structures.
The UCLA and NIMH researchers are also applying this new imaging approach to
relatives of schizophrenic patients to screen them for early brain changes.
The disease runs in families, but specific risk genes have not yet been
found. Although the causes of the disease are currently unknown, some
non-genetic trigger, in the teenage years, may activate the disease in some
individuals but not others. I had a normal MRI during a psychotic episode. I dont think it is alway
organic in nature. Have any of those who have Sz had more than one MRI? It would be
interesting to compare MRI's taken at different times and to compare
them.... Because there is no way of determining tissue loss from the results
of just one. Being a paranoid sz, it is probably to be expected that I am suspicious of the
"research" findings presented here.
Personally I believe this could be more disinformation to muddy the picture of
what causes sz. My understanding after having read the article is that sz is something akin to
a dementia.
The suggestions seem to be that our intelligence, a product of the gray matter
in our brain, is being progressively eroded.
From my experience I see no direct evidence of this.
My understanding is that about a 3rd of sz gain full recovery over time.
How would this be possible if our brains are being "eaten" away? I agree with the suggestion that the findings are probably not indicative to
sz in general.
