Schizophrenia News

June 1, 2024

Top Headlines

Weight Gain Is Kicked to the Curb in Antipsychotic Drug Breakthrough

May 28, 2024 — Thousands of Australians struggle with serious mental health conditions. But when the recommended treatment involves antipsychotic medications, the side effects are excess kilos, which only adds weight to an already complex diagnosis. Now, new ...

Tracking the Cellular and Genetic Roots of Neuropsychiatric Disease

May 23, 2024 — A new analysis has revealed detailed information about genetic variation in brain cells that could open new avenues for the targeted treatment of diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's ...

Study Uncovers Cell Type-Specific Genetic Insights Underlying Schizophrenia

May 23, 2024 — New research provides a map for how the genes known to increase risk of schizophrenia affect specific cells within the brain -- information researchers hope can drive the development of new, effective ...

Two Key Brain Systems Are Central to Psychosis

Apr. 11, 2024 — When the brain has trouble filtering incoming information and predicting what's likely to happen, psychosis can result, research ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:50am EDT

Understaffed Nursing Homes in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods More Likely to Overuse Antipsychotics

Apr. 24, 2024 — Nursing homes in disadvantaged communities are more likely to overmedicate residents with antipsychotics, especially homes that are understaffed, ...

Pilot Study Shows Ketogenic Diet Improves Severe Mental Illness

Apr. 1, 2024 — A small clinical trial found that the metabolic effects of a ketogenic diet may help stabilize the ...

Reverse Effects of Trauma? Older Brain Cells Linger Unexpectedly Before Their Death

Mar. 28, 2024 — Researchers report that mature oligodendrocytes -- the central nervous system cells critical for brain function -- cling to life following a fatal ...

Schizophrenia and Aging May Share a Common Biological Basis

Mar. 6, 2024 — Researchers have uncovered a strikingly similar suite of changes in gene activity in brain tissue from people with schizophrenia and from older adults. These changes suggest a common biological basis ...

Bullied Teens' Brains Show Chemical Change Associated With Psychosis

Feb. 5, 2024 — Researchers have found that adolescents being bullied by their peers are at greater risk of the early stages of psychotic episodes and in turn experience lower levels of a key neurotransmitter in a ...

Quest for Personalized Medicine Hits a Snag

Jan. 11, 2024 — The quest for personalized medicine, a medical approach in which practitioners use a patient's unique genetic profile to tailor individual treatment, has emerged as a critical goal in the health care ...

Vigilant Monitoring Is Needed to Manage Cardiac Risks in Patients Using Antipsychotics, Doctors Say

Jan. 15, 2024 — The use of the antipsychotic drugs quetiapine and haloperidol is associated with an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac ...

Study Reveals Function of Little-Understood Synapse in the Brain

Jan. 14, 2024 — New research for the first time reveals the function of a little-understood junction between cells in the brain that could have important treatment implications for conditions ranging from multiple ...

Clinical Predictive Models Created by AI Are Accurate but Study-Specific, Researchers Find

Jan. 12, 2024 — Scientists were able to show that statistical models created by artificial intelligence (AI) predict very accurately whether a medication responds in ...

Unravelling the Association Between Neonatal Proteins and Adult Health

Dec. 13, 2023 — Scientists studied two complement components that are important parts of the immune system and are linked to schizophrenia and autoimmune disorders. They studied the link between two protein ...

Student Links Worm Behavior to Brain Disease

Apr. 30, 2024 — An undergraduate student turns her honor's thesis into a peer-reviewed publication on schizophrenia ...

An Unexpected Link Between 2 Schizophrenia Risk Proteins

Oct. 26, 2023 — The discovery of a physical interaction between two proteins in brain cells that can be traced in mice to control of movement, anxiety and memory could one day open the door to development of new ...

New Clues to Early Development of Schizophrenia

Oct. 24, 2023 — Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disease that remains poorly understood and treated. Schizophrenia onset is typically in adolescence or early adulthood, but its underlying causes are ...

Brain Connectivity Is Disrupted in Schizophrenia

Oct. 17, 2023 — Schizophrenia, a neurodevelopmental disorder that features psychosis among its symptoms, is thought to arise from disorganization in brain connectivity and functional integration. Now, a new study ...

AI Language Models Could Help Diagnose Schizophrenia

Oct. 9, 2023 — Scientists have developed new tools, based on AI language models, that can characterize subtle signatures in the speech of patients diagnosed with ...

Scientists Take Next Big Step in Understanding Genetics of Schizophrenia

Sep. 15, 2023 — Scientists are figuring out which of the 5,000 variants associated with schizophrenia have an actual causal effect in the development of the condition that affects millions of people ...

Schizophrenia Genetic Risk Factor Impairs Mitochondrial Function

Aug. 16, 2023 — Researcher discovers possible link of mitochondrial function to the development of ...

New Neuroimaging Approach Could Improve Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

Aug. 2, 2023 — New research has identified age-related changes in brain patterns associated with the risk for developing schizophrenia. The discovery could help clinicians identify the risk for developing mental ...

Schizophrenia Is Associated With Somatic Mutations Occurring in Utero

July 6, 2023 — As a psychiatric disorder with onset in adulthood, schizophrenia is thought to be triggered by some combination of environmental factors and genetics, although the exact cause is still not fully ...

How Does Dopamine Regulate Both Learning and Motivation?

June 6, 2023 — A new study brings together two schools of thought on the function of the neurotransmitter dopamine: one saying that dopamine provides a learning signal, the other saying that dopamine drives ...

Further Link Identified Between Autoimmunity and Schizophrenia

May 31, 2023 — Links have been reported between schizophrenia and proteins produced by the immune system that can act against one's own body, known as autoantibodies. Researchers have now identified ...

Vitamin D Alters Developing Neurons in the Brain's Dopamine Circuit

May 24, 2023 — Neuroscientists have shown how vitamin D deficiency affects developing neurons in the brain's dopamine circuit, which may lead to the dopamine dysfunction seen in adults with ...

A Special Omega-3 Fatty Acid Lipid Will Change How We Look at the Developing and Aging Brain

May 5, 2023 — Scientists have found a lipid transporter crucial to regulating the cells that make myelin, the nerve-protecting ...

The Drug Fasudil Is Found to Reverse Key Symptoms of Schizophrenia in Mice

Feb. 17, 2023 — Researchers used the drug fasudil to restore neurons and improve methamphetamine-induced cognitive dysfunction in a mouse model of ...

Abnormal 12-Hour Cyclic Gene Activity Found in Schizophrenic Brains

Jan. 24, 2023 — Researchers present the first evidence of 12-hour cycles of gene activity in the human brain. The study also reveals that some of those 12-hour rhythms are missing or altered in the postmortem brains ...

Scientists Link Rare Genetic Phenomenon to Neuron Function, Schizophrenia

Nov. 30, 2022 — Using state-of-the-art whole-genome sequencing and machine learning techniques, researchers conducted one of the first and the largest investigations of tandem repeats in schizophrenia, elucidating ...

ADHD Medication for Amphetamine Addiction Linked to Reduced Risk of Hospitalization and Death, Study Finds

Nov. 16, 2022 — The ADHD medication lisdexamfetamine was associated with the lowest risk of hospitalization and death in people with amphetamine addiction, when medications generally used among persons with ...

Inflammation Amplifies the Effect of Genetic Risk Variants for Schizophrenia

Nov. 3, 2022 — Schizophrenia patients have fewer connections between nerve cells. This is believed to be caused by genetic risk variants leading to an excessive elimination of nerve cell connections by the immune ...

Schizophrenia May Increase Dementia Risk by 2.5 Times

Oct. 6, 2022 — People with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are 2.5 times more likely than those without a psychotic disorder to eventually develop dementia, according to a new ...

Neuronal Cell Type for Controlling the Flow of Information in the Brain

July 15, 2022 — Researchers have identified specific cells that regulate the transmission of information between brain areas. This discovery forms the basis for the development of new treatment options for ...