Hmmm, seems to me a Public Service Announcement might be called for, since though there is a lot of mystery remaining around Schizophrenia, we do know enough that we don’t need to toss our arms in the air and blame it on god or supernatural demons, when there are so many flesh and blood demons working on driving people crazy.
As for Schizophrenia, Science marches on . . .
Biological Origin of Schizophrenia
By PAUL GOLDSMITH January 27, 2016
https: //hms _ harvard _ edu/news/biological-origin-schizophrenia
The risk of schizophrenia increases if a person inherits specific variants in a gene related to “synaptic pruning”—the elimination of connections between neurons—according to a study from Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital. The findings were based on genetic analysis of nearly 65,000 people.
The study represents the first time that the origin of this psychiatric disease has been causally linked to specific gene variants and a biological process.
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It also helps explain two decades-old observations: synaptic pruning is particularly active during adolescence, which is the typical period of onset for symptoms of schizophrenia, and the brains of schizophrenic patients tend to show fewer connections between neurons.
The gene, complement component 4 (C4), plays a well-known role in the immune system. It has now been shown to also play a key role in brain development and schizophrenia risk. The insight may allow future therapeutic strategies to be directed at the disorder’s roots, rather than just its symptoms.
The study, which appears online Jan. 27 in Nature, was led by HMS researchers at the Broad Institute’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research and Boston Children’s. They include senior author Steven McCarroll, HMS associate professor of genetics and director of genetics for the Stanley Center; Beth Stevens, HMS assistant professor of neurology at Boston Children’s and institute member at the Broad; Michael Carroll, HMS professor of pediatrics at Boston Children’s; and first author Aswin Sekar, an MD-PhD student at HMS.
The study has the potential to reinvigorate translational research on a debilitating disease. Schizophrenia afflicts approximately 1 percent people worldwide and is characterized by hallucinations, emotional withdrawal and a decline in cognitive function. These symptoms most frequently begin in patients when they are teenagers or young adults.
“These results show that it is possible to go from genetic data to a new way of thinking about how a disease develops—something that has been greatly needed.”
First described more than 130 years ago, schizophrenia lacks highly effective treatments and has seen few biological or medical breakthroughs over the past half-century.
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SCIENCE WATCH - The roots of mental illness
How much of mental illness can the biology of the brain explain?
By Kirsten Weir
June 2012, Vol 43, No. 6
https: //www _ apa _ org/monitor/2012/06/roots
Diagnosing mental illness isn’t like diagnosing other chronic diseases. Heart disease is identified with the help of blood tests and electrocardiograms. Diabetes is diagnosed by measuring blood glucose levels. But classifying mental illness is a more subjective endeavor. No blood test exists for depression; no X-ray can identify a child at risk of developing bipolar disorder. At least, not yet.
Thanks to new tools in genetics and neuroimaging, scientists are making progress toward deciphering details of the underlying biology of mental disorders. Yet experts disagree on how far we can push this biological model. Are mental illnesses simply physical diseases that happen to strike the brain? Or do these disorders belong to a class all their own?
Eric Kandel, MD, a Nobel Prize laureate and professor of brain science at Columbia University, believes it’s all about biology. “All mental processes are brain processes, and therefore all disorders of mental functioning are biological diseases,” he says. “The brain is the organ of the mind. Where else could [mental illness] be if not in the brain?”
That viewpoint is quickly gaining supporters, thanks in part to Thomas R. Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, who has championed a biological perspective during his tenure at the agency.
To Insel, mental illnesses are no different from heart disease, diabetes or any other chronic illness. All chronic diseases have behavioral components as well as biological components, he says. “The only difference here is that the organ of interest is the brain instead of the heart or pancreas. But the same basic principles apply.”
A new toolkit …
Michael Marshall, MAY 5, 2020
https: //www _ nature _ com/articles/d41586-020-00922-8
The hidden links between mental disorders
Psychiatrists have a dizzying array of diagnoses and not enough treatments. Hunting for the hidden biology underlying mental disorders could help.
… The study tackles a fundamental question that has bothered researchers for more than a century. What are the roots of mental illness?
In the hope of finding an answer, scientists have piled up an enormous amount of data over the past decade, through studies of genes, brain activity and neuroanatomy. They have found evidence that many of the same genes underlie seemingly distinct disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, and that changes in the brain’s decision-making systems could be involved in many conditions.
Researchers are also drastically rethinking theories of how our brains go wrong. The idea that mental illness can be classified into distinct, discrete categories such as ‘anxiety’ or ‘psychosis’ has been disproved to a large extent. Instead, disorders shade into each other, and there are no hard dividing lines — as Plana-Ripoll’s study so clearly demonstrated.
Now, researchers are trying to understand the biology that underlies this spectrum of psychopathology. …
most cases of mental illness is caused from spiritual oppression and demonic attack,
“Spiritual Oppression”, sure being constant belittling and shit on constantly along with being powerless to change that will tweak any person when subjected to it long enough. But, Schizophrenia takes a few steps beyond that.
