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On June 20, 2006, William Bruce approached his mother as she worked at her desk at home and struck killing blows to her head with a hatchet. Two months earlier, William, a 24-year-old schizophrenic, had been released from Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, Maine, against the recommendations of his doctors. "Very dangerous indeed for release to the community," wrote one in William's record. But the doctor's notes also show that William's release was backed by government-funded patient advocates. According to medical records, the advocates -- none of them physicians -- appear to have fought for his right to refuse treatment,...

Genome deletions raise chances of developing mental illness.Rare genetic changes associated with a heightened risk of schizophrenia have been revealed by two independent studies.The surveys have identified sections of the human genome that, when deleted, can elevate the risk of developing schizophrenia by up to 15 times compared with the general population.Schizophrenia is a serious mental health problem and affects around 1 in every 100 people at some point during their lives. Genetic factors are thought to account for more than 70% of cases. But unlike many diseases with a genetic basis — and in common with many other psychiatric...

Two large studies of schizophrenia patients have yielded the most convincing evidence yet that the disease can be caused by mistakes in genes. The researchers linked a much higher risk for schizophrenia to three chromosomal regions that are missing chunks of DNA. Although only a tiny fraction of patients carried these particular glitches, similar errors may help explain other cases of the disease. Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder involving hallucinations and delusions that affects as many as 1 in 100 people; it often runs in families. So far, searches for common genes linked to schizophrenia have been unsuccessful. In...

Two groups of researchers hunting for schizophrenia genes on a larger scale than ever before have found new genetic variants that point toward a different understanding of the disease. The variants discovered by the two groups, one led by Dr. Kari Stefansson of Decode Genetics in Iceland and the other by Dr. Pamela Sklar of the Massachusetts General Hospital, are all rare. They substantially increase the risk of schizophrenia in those affected but account for a tiny fraction of the total number of cases. This finding, coupled with the general lack of success so far in finding common variants for...

Today's article on smoking restrictions and the "wellness" movement makes no mention of a politically incorrect truth: some people smoke because they find net positive benefits in it. Nicotine is not just an addictive drug, it is a powerful drug which affects the mind in ways that are often positive. Now let me add that I do note advocate people taking up smoking. I have no financial interest in tobacco, have never owned a tobacco stock, and if tobacco companies have advertised on American Thinker, I have not noticed it. (I would not get rid of their ads if they...

Scientists trying to link schizophrenia to a few, common genetic mutations may be missing an important cause of the disease. New research suggests that rare mutations--sometimes so infrequent that they occur in just a single family or individual--can significantly boost schizophrenia risk. Researchers suspect that these variants will prove to have effects on key aspects of brain development. Schizophrenia afflicts about 1% of the overall population, but a much higher proportion of homeless people and prison inmates. The disease has a strong heritable component, but researchers have struggled to find the genetic culprits. The working hypothesis has been that the...

...The trial results were a major breakthrough in neuroscience, says Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. For 50 years, all medicines for the disease had worked the same way — until Dr. Schoepp and other scientists took a different path. “This drug really looks like it’s quite a different animal,” Dr. Insel says. “This is actually pretty innovative.” Dr. Schoepp and other scientists had focused their attention on the way that glutamate, a powerful neurotransmitter, tied together the brain’s most complex circuits. Every other schizophrenia drug now on the market aims at a different...

In the US, most deaths are attributable to chronic afflictions, such as heart disease and cancer. Typically the medical community has attributed these diseases to accumulated damage, such as plaque formation in arteries or mutations in genes controlling cellular replication. This view is changing. Scientists are now beginning to recognize that many of these chronic illnesses are due to microbial infections. A recent report in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that schizophrenia, a mental illness leading to errors in perception, is associated with the pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii. "Our findings reveal the strongest association we've seen yet between infection with...

IOWA CITY, IOWA It's the time of year when the Frank Capra classic "It's a Wonderful Life" is aired on cable channels at all hours. You know the story: How George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, arrives on a bridge in a fit of despair, ready to take his own life. How the angel Clarence steps in and gives him a glimpse of what Bedford Falls would be like if he had never existed. How in the end the town comes together to save George from financial ruin, and the angel Clarence gets his wings. Well, after the death of...

WASHINGTON: A series of studies have revealed that there is a genetic link between schizophrenia and cancer. Schizophrenia is a biological condition that affects a person’s ability to think clearly, distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others. The studies, led by Dr. Daniel Weinberger of National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), and American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) member, provide a possible scientific explanation for lower rates of cancer among patients with schizophrenia, despite having poor diets and high rates of smoking, and their parents. Researchers emphasised that many of the genes associated with schizophrenia...

Hearing 'messages' embedded in noise could be early sign of schizophrenia New Haven, Conn.—A tendency to extract messages from meaningless noise could be an early sign of schizophrenia, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers. The study this month in the British Journal of Psychiatry reported on 43 participants diagnosed with “prodromal symptoms”— meaning they exhibited early warning signs of psychosis such as social withdrawal, mild perceptual alterations, or misinterpretation of social cues. Participants in the study were randomly assigned to take the anti-psychotic medication olanzapine or a placebo, and then symptoms and neuropsychological function were assessed...

How schizophrenia develops: Major clues discovered Findings may lead to better medications to correct gene-related problem Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue. The researchers found that the gene is turned on at increasingly high rates during normal development of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in higher functions like thinking and decision-making – but that this normal increase may not occur in people with schizophrenia. The...

In a clinical trial of about 200 patients, an experimental drug from Eli Lilly reduced schizophrenia symptoms without the serious side effects of current treatments, according to a paper published yesterday in the journal Nature. The drug must still be evaluated on many more patients to test for the possibility of side effects that have not yet emerged, and it is at least three to four years from completing regulatory review. But schizophrenia researchers said the trial’s results were surprising and impressive, especially since the drug works in a different way from existing antipsychotic medicines, all of which have serious...

Left-handers more at risk of mental illness By Laura Clout Last Updated: 1:49am BST 31/07/2007 Left-handed people may have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, scientists have found. An international group of scientists, led by a team at Oxford University, have identified a gene that seems to increase the chance of being left-handed. The researchers said that the same gene - called LRRTM1 - may slightly increase the risk of developing the brain disorder. Schizophrenia is a highly complex condition that results in impaired perception and thought, it affects around one in every 100 people. Although little is known about...

SCIENTISTS have created the world’s first schizophrenic mice in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the illness. It is believed to be the first time an animal has been genetically engineered to have a mental illness... Animal rights campaigners have condemned the research, saying that it is morally repugnant to create an animal doomed to mental suffering.

Cannabis users are 40% more likely than non-users to suffer a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia, say UK experts. Writing in the Lancet, a team led by Dr Stanley Zammit from Bristol and Cardiff Universities said young people needed to be made aware of the dangers. In an additional article, experts said up to 800 schizophrenia cases a year in the UK could be linked to cannabis use.

A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns. The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness. Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports. The grim statistics - the latest to link teenage cannabis use with mental illness in later life - come only days after Gordon Brown ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to class C, the least serious...

Using marijuana increases the risk of one day developing a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia, according to a study that provides some of the strongest evidence yet linking the drug to a mental disorder. *** The researchers found that marijuana users had a 41 percent increased chance of developing psychosis marked by symptoms of hallucinations or delusions later in life than those who never used the drug. The risk rose with heavier consumption.

Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner to become the next US president, has suffered serious bouts of depression, according to a new book by one of the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal. Carl Bernstein's A Woman in Charge details how she showed "persistent signs of melancholy" when she was a student and quotes a White House adviser saying she was "deeply depressed" in 1994, a year after her husband, Bill, became president. Carl Bernstein's A Woman in Charge profiles Hillary Clinton Due to be published on Tuesday, the book could damage the New York senator's ambition to become America's first female...

After success in a long fight against forced medication, a schizophrenic man gained freedom. But now he is accused of killing his roommate.

Danish researchers find possible schizophrenia cause The number of brain cells people have could play a role in whether they develop mental illnesses such as schizophrenia Six researchers at Bispebjerg University Hospital have found a possible link between schizophrenia and the number of brain cells people have. The researchers' findings, which are published in the current issue of science journal Cerebral Cortex, suggest that some people might have a surplus of brain cells by the time they reach adulthood. By conducting autopsies and comparing the thalamus brain region of 8 newborns and 8 adults, the researchers found 11 million brain...

OXFORD, Miss. - Mississippi filed a lawsuit Monday against Eli Lilly and Co., alleging improper sales and marketing of the anti-psychotic prescription drug Zyprexa. The lawsuit was filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court. Tim Balducci of the Langston Law Firm in Booneville, named a special assistant attorney general to handle the case, said the lawsuit seeks to recover money the state spent to purchase Zyprexa to treat symptoms for which the drug has not been approved. It also seeks money spent in providing health care to certain Medicaid recipients who allegedly suffered injuries or illnesses - such a diabetes -...

This week's Forbes has an article penned by Fuller Torrey on "Cats and Schizophrenia." Besides being hard to access the article is short and leaves out some information that tones down the alarming nature of the data. Below is an exerpt of a Corante article that fills the data in. Carl Zimmer's article begins with data on rats and cats suggesting that rat behavior is indeed changed by toxoplasmosis. He then goes on to discuss the specifics in humans. "...The Oxford scientists knew that humans can be hosts to Toxoplasma, too. People can become infected by its eggs by handling...

Tancredo says president believes nation should be merely 'idea' without borders PALM BEACH, Fla. – President Bush believes America should be more of an idea than an actual place, a Republican congressman told WND in an exclusive interview. "People have to understand what we're talking about here. The president of the United States is an internationalist," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that – it's an idea. It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this...

Memorial for UC Berkeley's 'Naked Guy' Monday, November 13, 2006 A memorial was held in Cupertino on Sunday for Andrew Martinez, whose naked jaunts through the UC Berkeley campus earned him the nickname "the Naked Guy" and national fame before he committed suicide May 18 in a Santa Clara Jail cell at age 33. Here, attendees watch a 20-minute video of Martinez made by his girlfriend, Micaela O'Herliha of Milwaukee.

In the hour before he was killed, on Sunday, Sept. 3, Dr. Wayne S. Fenton, a prominent schizophrenia specialist, was helping his wife clear the gutters of their suburban Washington house. He was steadying the ladder, asking her to please stop showering debris on his clean shirt; he had just made an appointment to see a patient and wanted to look presentable. She said she would be happy to go along, to help control the patient. It was a running joke between them. For in this part of the country, Dr. Fenton was the therapist of last resort, the one...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Zacarias Moussaoui's behavior is abnormal even for an al-Qaida terrorist, a defense psychologist testified Tuesday. Xavier Amador diagnosed the Sept. 11, 2001, conspirator with paranoid schizophrenia after observing his actions and writings since 2002. He cited delusional beliefs firmly held by Moussaoui, including his conviction that President Bush will free him from prison and that his court-appointed lawyers are in a conspiracy to kill him. He also contrasted Moussaoui's erratic behavior with that of several other al-Qaida terrorists who have been tried in U.S. criminal court. The defense introduced affidavits filed by lawyers for Ramzi Yousef, serving...

Researchers have made progress in understanding how a variant gene linked to schizophrenia may exert its influence in the brain. The findings are tentative but, if confirmed, could yield deep insights into the biological basis of the disease. The gene, called neuregulin-1, was first implicated in schizophrenia in 2002 by DeCode Genetics, a Reykjavik company that looks for the genetic roots of common diseases... But how the variant form of the gene contributed to the disease was far from clear, in part because even the normal gene's function is far from understood. A team led by Amanda J. Law of...

Jessica Wilcox was born into a humble family on New Year’s Eve of 1925. Her father left them when she was three; her mother was critical and cold to her. The young girl was often left alone for hours in a dark room, and hence, as children are wont to do, she created an imaginary friends with whom to pass the time. With these imaginary friends, Jessica forged strong friendships, chief among them was one named Arlene, who hung around for many years and grew up with Jessica despite being an almost polar opposite of her: Jessica was open...

Some questions about the Christian life have easy answers. Others do not. In a nice article from January 17th, 2006, D.C. Toedt at The Questioning Christian addresses the thorny and complex issue of Christianity and mental illness. It is my opinion that the Christian community in general has historically not done a very good job at of understanding and ministering to those with mental illness. Christians have no problems helping those suffering from heart disease and cancer, but often blame mental illness on the patient. How many Christians have been told "If you just prayed more and developed a better attitude" you...

Researchers have found stronger evidence for a link between a parasite in cat faeces and undercooked meat and an increased risk of schizophrenia. Research published today in Procedings of the Royal Society B, shows how the invasion or replication of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii in rats may be inhibited by using anti-psychotic or mood stabilising drugs. The researchers tested anti-psychotic and mood stabilising medications used for the treatment of schizophrenia on rats infected with T. gondii and found they were as, or more, effective at preventing behaviourial alterations as anti-T. gondii drugs. This led them to believe that T. gondii...

New research into schizophrenia reveals that creative minds of poets and artists act as a sexual magnetLord Byron, Dylan Thomas and Pablo Picasso had more in common than being creative. They also had lively and exhausting sex lives - which, researchers say today, is no coincidence. Psychologists have found that the creativity of professional artists and poets acts like a sexual magnet, which could explain the behaviour of notorious womanisers such as the poet Byron and the painter Picasso. Dylan Thomas's wife, Caitlin, bore the brunt of his promiscuity Although creative types have long been associated with increased sexual activity,...

CHICAGO – Heavy use of marijuana may put adolescents who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia at greater risk of developing the brain disorder, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Using a sophisticated brain imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), researchers at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, studied the brains of groups of adolescents: healthy, non-drug users; heavy marijuana smokers (daily use for at least one year); and schizophrenic patients. Unlike magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides a static picture of brain structures, DTI detects and...

NEW YORK -- Dr. Fuller Torrey is studying whether a parasite in Fluffy's droppings causes schizophrenia, a mental illness that strikes 2.2 million Americans and is characterized by hallucinations, delusions and trouble regulating emotions. The Washington-area psychiatrist has found that people with schizophrenia were more likely to have had pet cats as young children, or their mothers kept the animals during their pregnancies. Torrey is now testing antibiotics against the feline parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to treat schizophrenia, according to an article in the December issue of Esquire. "My wife thinks I'm probably ultimately going to be assassinated by (cat lovers),"...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A Washington psychiatrist believes there is a link between exposure to cats in childhood and schizophrenia. Dr. Fuller Torrey says that he has noticed that schizophrenics were more likely to have had cats when they were very young or mothers who had cats while pregnant. Torrey told the New York Daily News that his wife thinks he is going to be killed by cat lovers. But he still believes that there is a link between early exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cats, and schizophrenia. "Not only cats, but virtually all animals carry...

In a verdict that veteran prosecutors said they have never seen in Travis County, a jury late Thursday found former University of Texas graduate student Jackson Ngai not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of his UT piano professor last year. During the trial, Ngai's lawyer, Jim Erickson, argued that the 24-year-old was suffering paranoid symptoms of schizophrenia when he cut and stabbed Danielle Martin more than 200 times in her Central Austin home. "He said he was getting a computer chip out," she testified. "He said that's what he was going to do. When he couldn't do...

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the University of Geneva have found that a gene that regulates dopamine levels in the brain is involved in the development of schizophrenia in children at high risk for the disorder. “The hope is that we will one day be able to identify the highest-risk groups and intervene early to prevent a lifetime of problems and suffering. As we gain a much better understanding of these disorders, we can design treatments that are much more specific and effective,” said Dr. Allan L. Reiss. According to the study,...

Grandmother asked social service agency for partial custody. Relatives of a mentally troubled woman from Oakland who reported hearing voices before she allegedly threw her three young sons into the bay to die said Thursday they had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Alameda County social service workers to help them gain custody of the children. Members of the family of La-shuan Ternice Harris said they had argued that the 23-year-old woman was unstable and unfit to care for her boys -- 6-year-old Trayshaun Harris, 2-year-old Taronta Greely Jr. and 16-month-old Joshua Greely. They had given up trying by Wednesday, when Harris...

As we slip into deep sleep, higher regions of our brains take a vacation from each other, disconnecting so much that consciousness is snuffed out and a once highly integrated organ becomes separated, according to a groundbreaking experiment by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

NEW HAVEN - Many people once gladly paid to see her grace the stage of "The Rep," Yale's famed Repertory Theater. But for the last six years, Margaret Holloway has had a different sort of audience. Often found on the steps of Willoughby's Coffee House in the downtown arts district, her arena of choice, Holloway seems to be known to nearly everyone. They like her act. The 53-year-old "Shakespeare Lady" does an instant monologue for instant change, from Hamlet to Chaucer. Her favorite is seven lines of Medea's speech to Jason in Euripides' classic story of a woman betrayed. "I...

SAN FRANCISCO - Last week's state Senate vote seeking to legalize gay marriage is the latest example of the political schizophrenia that has come to define the issue in the nation's most populous state. Since 1999, when lawmakers established a registry of same-sex couples, California has been in the vanguard of extending to gay and lesbian partners nearly all the rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples. But for all the state's live-and-let-live social tolerance, voters have balked at granting gay couples the right to marry. In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22, which strictly defined marriage as the union of...

CHICAGO -- A study of a famine in China more than 40 years ago found that children born to severely malnourished women are more likely to develop schizophrenia. The research bolsters the evidence that environmental factors can trigger the devastating mental illness. Compared with children born before or after the 1959-61 famine, those born during the disaster faced double the risk of becoming schizophrenic later on. The results are nearly identical to a previous study of a famine in Holland resulting from a Nazi food blockade toward the end of World War II. "Since the two populations are ethnically and...

Last of three articles John Zeber recently examined one of the nation's largest databases of psychiatric cases to evaluate how doctors diagnose schizophrenia, a disorder that often portends years of powerful brain-altering drugs, social ostracism and forced hospitalizations. Although schizophrenia has been shown to affect all ethnic groups at the same rate, the scientist found that blacks in the United States were more than four times as likely to be diagnosed with the disorder as whites. Hispanics were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed as whites. Zeber, who studies quality, cost and access issues for the U.S....

RAIPUR RANI, India -- Second of three articles Psychiatrist Naren Wig crossed an open sewer, skirted a pond and, in the dusty haze of afternoon, saw something miraculous. Krishna Devi, a woman he had treated years ago for schizophrenia, sat in a courtyard surrounded by religious pictures, exposed brick walls and drying laundry. Devi had stopped taking medication long ago, but her articulate speech and easy smile were eloquent testimony that she had recovered from the debilitating disease. Few schizophrenia patients in the United States are so lucky, even after years of treatment. But Devi had hidden assets: a doting...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Prosecutors trying Charles Allen McCoy Jr. for a string of sniper shootings in the greater Columbus area reminded jurors Thursday of the effect those shootings had one their own lives. "The choice of driving routes drastically changed for many drivers here in central Ohio," Franklin County First Assistant Prosecutor Ed Morgan told jurors during his opening statement in McCoy's capital murder trial. "The evidence will show that this change in driving routes was due in large part because someone in possession of a 9 mm Beretta pistol was choosing not to fire at a range target, but...

Cannabis use as a teenager increases the risk of developing schizophrenia in later life, a study using research on New Zealand youths has revealed. A report in the British Medical Journal showed those who used cannabis as a teenager had a 10 per cent chance of developing psychosis by the age of 26. The general public have a 3 per cent risk. The conclusions were based on a study by the Institute of Psychiatry in London of 759 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between 1972 and 1973. That report was used and supported by Dutch researcher Dr Jim van...

MIAMI-DADE Family: Police victim bipolar The shooting of Cesar Rada by a Miami-Dade police officer was the department's 17th shooting since 1999 involving a mentally ill person Cesar Rada -- aspiring actor and model, and a psychology student at Florida International University -- had bipolar disorder and was schizophrenic, his family says. Sunday night, he had his hands raised and was unarmed as he walked toward a Miami-Dade police officer who killed him during a tense confrontation in a Kendall yard, police and witnesses said. The officer, Jeffrey Price, 23, was placed on administrative leave Monday while Miami-Dade's internal affairs...

Smoking Pot Doubles Mental Illness Risk CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 1, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New Zealand researchers have established that marijuana use doubles the risk of developing a mental illness like schizophrenia. After interviewing 1,000 people about their history of cannabis use, the University of Otago researchers established that psychotic symptoms were more prevalent in cannabis users. They established that the relation between mental illness rates and drug use was not due to an underlying illness driving the users to use more marijuana. Lead researcher Professor David Fergusson said the increased psychosis risk resulted from chemical changes in the brain...

The study asked people about their cannabis use Smoking cannabis virtually doubles the risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, researchers say. The New Zealand scientists said their study suggested this was probably due to chemical changes in the brain which resulted from smoking the drug. The study, published in the journal Addiction, followed over 1,000 people born in 1977 for 25 years. UK mental health campaigners said it was more evidence of a "drug-induced mental health crisis". The researchers, from the University of Otago, interviewed people taking part in the Christchurch Health and Development Study about their cannabis...

Mental Health Charity Calls for Cannabis Probe Sat Jan 29,10:37 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - A British health charity called on Saturday for an investigation into evidence that smoking cannabis may cause psychosis in people at risk of mental illness. Rethink, which campaigns on behalf of schizophrenia sufferers, said the mental health risks of using cannabis were not widely understood. "There is strong evidence from a wide range of sources that long term and short-term use of cannabis can 'trigger' a psychotic episode of schizophrenia in people who are at high risk of developing schizophrenia --- for instance, people who...