Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Study: Schizophrenia Linked to Autoimmune Disorders

Excerpt from: Psych Central (click for full article)

 

A study published in the March American Journal of Psychiatry found a stronger association between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases than previously suspected.

Dr. William W. Eaton, of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and colleagues analyzed information about 7,704 schizophrenia patients and their parents from three databases (the Danish Psychiatric Register, the National Patient Register, and a register with socioeconomic information) and compared the data with a sample of matched comparison subjects and their parents. They found that a family history of any autoimmune disease was associated with a 45% increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Five autoimmune disorders appeared more frequently in patients with schizophrenia prior to schizophrenia onset as well as in the patients’ parents: thyrotoxicosis, intestinal malabsorption, acquired hemolytic anemia, interstitital cystitis, and Sjögren’s syndrome. More research on family histories of autoimmune disease in schizophrenia patients may provide clues to causal factors common to both types of disorders.

Autism, Psychiatric Disorders Close Genetic Cousins

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

In the largest study of its kind, researchers are reporting that autism may be more closely tied to a handful of other psychiatric disorders than previously thought.

Scientists analyzed the genomes of more than 60,000 people finding that those with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia may all share genetic risk factors.

For the study published online this week in the journal The Lancet, researchers looked at the genomes of 33,332 people, each of whom had one of the five psychiatric disorders targeted, and 27,888 people with no mental health issues. They found four areas of genetic code with variations seen in people with all five psychiatric conditions.

The discovery could help improve understanding of the psychiatric disorders, researchers said, and may lead to more accurate ways to diagnose the conditions.

Trying to help schizophrenics with computer brain games

Excerpt from: The Washington Post (click for full article)

 

A California company, Posit Science, is developing a computer game that it hopes will become the first to earn approval from the Food and Drug Administration for treating schizophrenia. 

The idea comes from Michael Merzenich, an emeritus professor of neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco and a co-founder of Posit Science. Merzenich is something of a living legend in neuroscience, a co-inventor of cochlear implants and one of the pioneers of the theory of neuroplasticity, which asserts that the brain continues to develop throughout a lifetime.

Treating schizophrenia with brain training is based on the theo­ry that the confusion and fear the disease creates may occur because the brain’s expectations about what will happen do not match up with what actually happens. That disconnect might be traced to a problem with verbal and auditory processing of information, something that brain training targets.

Successful and Schizophrenic

Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)

 

Personally, I reach out to my doctors, friends and family whenever I start slipping, and I get great support from them. I eat comfort food (for me, cereal) and listen to quiet music. I minimize all stimulation. Usually these techniques, combined with more medication and therapy, will make the symptoms pass. But the work piece — using my mind — is my best defense. It keeps me focused, it keeps the demons at bay. My mind, I have come to say, is both my worst enemy and my best friend.

THAT is why it is so distressing when doctors tell their patients not to expect or pursue fulfilling careers. Far too often, the conventional psychiatric approach to mental illness is to see clusters of symptoms that characterize people. Accordingly, many psychiatrists hold the view that treating symptoms with medication is treating mental illness. But this fails to take into account individuals’ strengths and capabilities, leading mental health professionals to underestimate what their patients can hope to achieve in the world.

I don’t want to sound like a Pollyanna about schizophrenia; mental illness imposes real limitations, and it’s important not to romanticize it. We can’t all be Nobel laureates like John Nash of the movie “A Beautiful Mind.” But the seeds of creative thinking may sometimes be found in mental illness, and people underestimate the power of the human brain to adapt and to create.

Mentally ill man jailed 3 weeks ‘should never have been arrested,’ brother says

Excerpt from: The Vancouver Sun (click for full article)

 

“I think the process was followed where the individual was arrested for failing to identify himself, or obstruction. Certainly on the surface, our officers aren’t in a position to make an assessment whether they are dealing with someone with a mental illness in the first instance. Then through that process, as a result of coming before the courts, it then became clear as to what may be impacting his behaviour, thus the next steps were taken for an assessment to be done, which is the way the process should work.”

Immediate help can be offered to people when they are arrested by police under the Mental Health Act, “but that wasn’t the case here,” Thiessen said.

“If we had initiated an arrest under the Mental Health Act, then different mechanisms would come into play,” he added.

Court grants emergency stay of execution for Florida man who killed 8

Excerpt from: CNN (click for full article)

 

A diagnosed schizophrenic convicted of killing eight people in Florida in the late 1970s is awaiting word as to whether his execution will go forward. John Ferguson had been scheduled to be executed Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET at the Florida State Prison, but a district court has granted him a stay.

Laurel Bellows, the president of the American Bar Association, who rarely comments on upcoming executions, said she was "alarmed" by the John Ferguson case.

Ferguson, scheduled to die tonight in Florida, has been diagnosed as a schizophrenic.

Here's Bellows' full statement:

"The American Bar Association is alarmed that Florida is poised to execute John Ferguson, a man diagnosed as severely mentally ill for more than 40 years, before the constitutionality of his execution is fully evaluated. Although a district court evidentiary hearing regarding Ferguson's competency is scheduled for Friday, that could be too late: His execution could occur as soon as today.

A federal trial judge had stayed Ferguson’s execution and ordered the hearing to afford 'full, reflective consideration' of Ferguson’s constitutional claims; however, that stay has now been lifted by the court of appeals. In the interest of justice, it is imperative that Ferguson’s execution be again stayed until there is an opportunity for the federal courts to fully review his insanity claims on the merits and thus ensure that his execution will be constitutional. To do otherwise would be to risk a terrible miscarriage of justice — one that can never be undone."

 

Here is the statement the ABA released on their website in relation to this case.