New Schizophrenia Research With Groundbreaking Results

By Victoria Robertson on January 29, 2016

Photo Via: http://www.newhealthadvisor.com

Calling all psychology majors!

A new study announced just yesterday is reportedly a major step in the direction of understanding schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by delusional thinking and hallucinations. While there is treatment in the form of medicine, these drugs do nothing to cure the underlying cause, only to blunt the symptoms.

The study was conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Broad Institute.

The new study, whose findings will be published in the journal Nature, won’t change the current treatment. However, researchers claim that the results of this study have provided them with their first biological handle on the mysterious disorder.

Basically, the research revealed that the risk for schizophrenia comes from a process called “synaptic pruning.” This natural process is where the brain sheds weak or redundant connections between neurons as they mature. This process also primarily takes place in adolescence, giving the first clue as to why the disease typically develops at such an early age.

Essentially, if a person carries genes that accelerate or intensify the natural, synaptic pruning process, they are at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.

While this was largely agreed upon by researchers before the paper was released, this new study strengthened this argument, not only clarifying the problem, but describing, in detail, how pruning goes awry and what specific gene malfunctions are the cause. Basically, the theory that researchers had already reached a consensus on has finally been proven — at least in part.

To prove this theory, without going into too much technical detail, the research involved some previous research on a specific location of the human genome, the MHC, an area strongly associated with schizophrenia in other genetic studies. In the new research, this connection is clarified, as this particular gene includes four common variants that produced two kinds of proteins, one of which is an accelerant in the pruning process.

As stated by Dr. Steven McCarroll, associate professor of genetics and Harvard, “The finding connects all these dots, all these disconnected observations about schizophrenia, and makes them make sense.”

Still, a simple gene variant isn’t enough to cause the disorder, and researchers don’t believe there is enough evidence to begin testing the general population. Still, having this variant increases a person’s chances of schizophrenia by 25 percent, something not to be taken lightly.

Such evidence is considered groundbreaking for these reasons, in that it helps researchers further understand a disease that has done nothing but baffle scientists for many years. But as far as developing a cure goes, researchers still say we’re too far out to get our hopes up. Yet.

According to Dr. Eric S. Lander, director of the Broad Institute, “We’re all very excited and proud of this work, but I’m not ready to call it a victory until we have something that can help patients.”

The research is still inconclusive in many areas, such as why a certain protein is associated with accelerating the pruning process while another isn’t, as there are still plenty of questions that need answering.

And in future research, scientists hope to discover more information to not only help them develop a cure, but to also help them better diagnose patients, clarifying the prognosis in adolescents sooner than can be done today.

So as far as new drugs and that ever-persistent drive for a cure are concerned, researchers still have quite a bit of ground to cover. But this was the first step in the right direction along that path, and while it’s still going to be a long, difficult journey, this research should be enough to raise anybody’s hopes that someday, we’re going to get there.

For more detail, visit The New York Times.

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