schizophrenia

During the early stages of schizophrenia and depression, doctors often have a difficult time distinguishing between the two mental health disorders. The good news is that doctors may now be steps closer to be diagnosing depression and schizophrenia with the use of a blood test. Coauthor of the study Dr. Handan Gunduz-Bruce explained, “This is ...click here to read more

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences have found eight genes that may explain the inverse relationship between schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder, while rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the immune system attacks its own cells. Both conditions are thought to be affected ...click here to read more

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and the Institut Pasteur in Paris recently conducted a study to find out why patients with schizophrenia tend to smoke more often, and they found a connection between consistent nicotine intake and brain activity. Eighty to ninety percent of those with schizophrenia smoke, with the majority of that ...click here to read more

New research published in Nature Genetics has discovered a genetic link between sleep disturbance and medical conditions such as restless leg syndrome, schizophrenia, and obesity. The study examined the biological mechanisms that control insomnia, the duration of sleep, and excessive daytime drowsiness. They also looked at how they related to the medical and life histories ...click here to read more

A recent study conducted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in collaboration with King’s College London has revealed that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can rewire the brain and promote healthier neural connections. CBT is a type of talk therapy that aims to change the way patients think and respond to thought and experiences, ...click here to read more

Schizophrenia symptoms are significantly lower with aerobic exercise, according to study findings. The researchers combined data from 10 independent clinical trials with a total of 385 schizophrenia patients. The researchers found that just 12 weeks of aerobic exercise is enough to improve symptoms in schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia patients may experience memory problems, impaired information processing, ...click here to read more

Hearing loss in schizophrenia can be improved by targeting specific receptors in the brain. Lead author Joshua T. Kantrowitz explained, “Slight variations in our tone of voice are an important way of communicating emotions, such as happiness or sadness. This inability to detect subtle changes in pitch can also make it difficult to ‘sound out’ ...click here to read more

High resting heart rate and blood pressure is associated with many mental health disorders. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, looked at data from over a million Swedish men. Heart rate and blood pressure are regulated by the autonomic nervous system which controls the body’s basic functions. Using blood pressure and heart rate measurements, the ...click here to read more

Residual schizophrenia is one of the five types of schizophrenia and is characterized by a long-term history of negative symptoms and very infrequent positive symptoms. The term ‘positive symptoms’ is used to describe something that is believed to be real to the patient, but is actually false to everyone else. Positive symptoms are more commonly ...click here to read more

One mental illness that is often misunderstood is schizophrenia. It is commonly described as having multiple personalities, but this is not the full truth. In fact, there are many different types of schizophrenia, each with their own set of symptoms, which certainly contributes to the general misunderstanding of the condition. What is schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is ...click here to read more

This weekly health news roundup presents our most recent articles on Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis, macular degeneration, schizophrenia, and heart attack. This week we found out about an inhaled medication that may improve symptoms in Parkinson’s disease, high cholesterol may contribute to osteoarthritis, age-related macular degeneration risk may be reduced with the Mediterranean diet. We also ...click here to read more

Paranoid schizophrenia is a type of schizophrenia in which the patient experiences delusions that somebody may be plotting against them or their family or friends. This is the most common form of schizophrenia. Patients may also experience auditory hallucinations, meaning, they hear things that are not real. Patients may spend majority of their time thinking ...click here to read more

Schizophrenia is associated with reduced sleep spindle and sleep abnormality. Senior author of the study Robert Stickgold explained, “One of the most exciting advances in sleep research over the last decade has been the growing understanding of sleep’s causal relationship to psychiatric disorders. Here, we reviewed the evidence that reduced sleep spindle activity predates the ...click here to read more

It is quite common to experience delusions in schizophrenia which are known as ‘positive symptoms’. The term ‘positive symptoms’ is used to describe something that is believed to be real to the patient but is actually false to everyone else. Delusions are false beliefs that patients actually hold. For example, in paranoid schizophrenia, a common ...click here to read more