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Previous studies have questioned whether gut microbe imbalances and vitamin D deficiency may be linked to schizophrenia. New research published in Neuropsychopharmacology Reports now indicates that taking probiotics plus vitamin D supplements may improve cognitive function in individuals with the disease. For the study, 70 adults with schizophrenia were randomized to take a placebo or probiotic supplements plus 400 IU vitamin D daily for 12 weeks. Severity of the disease and cognitive function were evaluated by tests called the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the 30-point Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), respectively. A total of 69 patients completed the...

Police believe killer Joel Cauchi was 'targeting women' after fatally stabbing six people in a horror rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction. … The 40-year-old's motives have yet to be confirmed, but a police source claims investigators believe Cauchi was 'definitely targeting women'. The source explained police had viewed extensive footage of Cauchi's movements throughout the shopping centre and observed him selecting his victims. 'I don't think there's any other way to look at it,' the source told the Daily Telegraph. 'You can see on the footage he walks past other people. He just keeps moving past them and then attacks...

The AR-15-toting female who opened fire on worshippers at Lakewood Church in Houston on Sunday before she was killed by two off-duty law enforcement officers used a male name, making her one of several gender-confused shooters in recent years. After what Houston Police Department Homicide Division Commander Chris Hassig called a rigorous investigation “talking with individuals” conducting “interviews” and scanning “documents,” the department confirmed that 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno is a Hispanic woman who sometimes masqueraded as “Jeffrey Escalante.” It's still unclear exactly why Moreno, who had a long rap sheet and, according to Moreno’s anti-Second Amendment mother-in-law, a history...

A Pennsylvania man decapitated his 68 year-old federal government employee dad - then held up the victim's head for a YouTube video blasting the Biden administration. Justin Mohn, 32, beheaded his father Michael at their $390,000 home in Middleton Township, Pennsylvania then displayed the head during a rant blaming the federal government for 'woke mobs' and migrants he claims are destroying the United States. The appalling 14 minute clip - which remained on YouTube for six hours after it was posted - sees Mohn hold up his father's head in a bloodied plastic bag. He says: 'This is the head...

New medical research suggests that owning a cat could double the risk of developing schizophrenia. To reach that conclusion, scientists in Australia analyzed 17 studies published over the last 44 years from 11 different countries, including the US and the UK. “Our findings support an association between cat exposure and an increased risk of broadly defined schizophrenia-related disorders,” the authors wrote in their analysis, published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. “We found that individuals exposed to cats had approximately twice the odds of developing schizophrenia,” wrote the research team from the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. Schizophrenia is a...

Marijuana, cannabis, pot, weed—call it what you will, the psychoactive drug is incredibly popular. This is especially true in the United States, where weed is big business. A staggering 16 percent of Americans—roughly 54 million—admit to smoking weed. In 2021, 13 percent said they smoked the drug.According to a recent Brightfield Group report, the annual revenue of the U.S. weed industry is estimated to reach $31.8 billion by the end of the year. By 2028, the industry is expected to be worth $50.7 billion. In New York City alone, legal marijuana appears set to become a $1.2 billion-a-year industryIn recent...

Neuroscientists from the University of Maryland have come a step closer to understanding how disorders such as autism and schizophrenia develop in children, opening the door for potential new treatments. Inflammation in the brain during early childhood has been previously linked to autism and schizophrenia. But the mechanisms behind this link have been unclear. Now Maryland researchers have identified how this inflammation can affect human brain cells and their development, offering a potential mechanism for this association. Their results were published on October 12 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. In their research, the team conducted a post-mortem analysis of...

The evidence for keeping weed illegal keeps mounting — even as the laws get looser. A new, peer-reviewed study (on a significant data set of nearly 60,000 Canadians) has shown that adults who misuse pot have a 60% higher risk of experiencing their first heart attack, stroke, or other major cardiovascular event. In other words: Weed’s not a harmless vice. It’s a killer, like cigarettes. And unlike cigarettes, it literally drives people insane. A massive Danish study based on nearly 7 million health records drew a strong correlation between heavy cannabis use and increased risk of schizophrenia in young men....

On Saturday, as RedState reported, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was ambushed and shot in the head while sitting in his patrol car, stopped at a traffic light just down the street from the Palmdale station house. Deputy Clinkunbroomer ultimately succumbed to his injuries. Following the shooting, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna gave a press conference in which he shared his belief that it had been a targeted shooting and asked for the public's assistance in identifying and locating the suspect(s). It is now being reported that an arrest has been made regarding the shooting. Sources close...

A nationwide social experiment launched by a wave of marijuana legalizations is finally bearing results in the form of higher depression rates and addiction. It started in 2012 in Colorado and Washington, setting off a domino effect that has seen restrictions lifted across nearly 40 states, including 23 where it's legal to use marijuana recreationally. The Biden administration now aims to demote the drug from its schedule I status, which lumped it in with heroin and LSD, to schedule III, the first step toward total decriminalization at a federal level. Marijuana has been lauded for its purported benefits for pain...

Awoman aboard an American Airlines flight caused quite the scene when she was caught on camera freaking out and heading for the exit over an apparent passenger she said was “not real.” The bizarre, expletive-laden meltdown that went viral Monday reportedly occurred as the flight was preparing to depart Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. “I’m telling you, I’m getting the f–k off and there’s a reason why I’m getting the f–k off and everyone can either believe it or they can not believe it,” the woman yells as she paces to the front of the plane, according to footage of the...

“The increased risk of getting schizophrenia after drug-related psychosis is even higher than what we find in first-degree relatives of those who have been given the diagnosis,” Bramness says. First-degree relatives are parents and children. The risk of being diagnosed with the malady for sons and daughters of a sick mother or father is "only" five to ten per cent. In other words, there is no other risk factor for schizophrenia that is higher than related to drug-induced psychoses. Trauma, infections and moving to another country are other known risk factors for schizophrenia, but these increase the risk to a...

A 27-year-old Florida woman was arrested after her parents found two dozen pipe bombs in her bedroom and called the local sheriff's office, authorities said Friday. Michelle Louise Kolts was arrested early Friday and booked on 24 counts of making, possessing, throwing, projecting, placing or discharging a destructive device.

A Florida woman who was found with 24 homemade pipe bombs and a hit list pleaded guilty Wednesday to avoid prison, and will instead receive mental health treatment. Michelle Kolts pleaded guilty in a Tampa courtroom to reduce charges following her 2019 arrest. She was originally charged with 24 counts of making, possessing and discharging a destructive device. "Twenty-four months of community control followed by 15 years probation," prosecutor Lindsey Hodges said, Fox Tampa reported.

The text from her son Randy that Heather Bacchus received at at 1:26 AM on July 17, 2021, seemed like good news. “I’m quitting weed for good and want to surround myself with healthy and happy people,” he wrote. “This has been too much for me and for you guys.” Less than an hour later, at 2:09 AM, a second text arrived. “I love you and am sorry for everything. I love dad and the same to him. I wish I would have been a better person.” It was his suicide note. That night, Randy killed himself. ...Now research suggests...

The French psychiatrist Jacques-Joseph Moreau published a book called Hashish and Mental Illness in 1845, the same year that Scientific American brought out its first issue. In it, he explored his own experiences with the drug cannabis at the Paris-based Club des Hachichins—some of which took place alongside the likes of Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire. Two years earlier Moreau described the “undescribable delights” of a “marvelous substance.” But in his 1845 book, he noted in great clinical detail the similarities to psychosis when ingesting high doses. Nearly two centuries later the possible link between cannabis use...

Researchers demonstrated spatial and temporal abnormalities of spontaneous fixational saccades and their correlates with positive and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, suggesting that fixational saccades are a promising and easily obtainable biomarker for cognitive and positive symptoms and for complementary diagnosis in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a devastating heterogenous psychotic disorder characterized by debilitating positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive deficits. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and bizarre behaviors. Negative symptoms constitute an absence of normal functioning. Given the central importance of seeing to humans, visual fixation is a fundamental behavioral pattern that allows people to gather information and guide...

A team used the drug fasudil to reverse two common symptoms associated with schizophrenia: reduced density of pyramidal neurons and cognitive dysfunction associated with methamphetamine treatment. Genetic vulnerability is generally accepted to be involved in the development of schizophrenia. One key genetic factor involved is copy-number variation, a genetic trait in which people have different numbers of a particular gene. In particular, variations in the copy number of the ARHGAP10 gene are associated with symptoms of schizophrenia. ARHGAP10 encodes a protein that is involved in regulation of the Rho GTPase family of enzymes. Among these Rho GTPase family members, a...

Plus: Court reminds cops they can't pull people over just to flirt, salary range laws aren't working as planned, and more...Arrested for pointing his fingers at police in a threatening manner, Arkansas man Larry Eugene Price Jr. wound up in jail for more than a year without being convicted and eventually died of malnutrition and dehydration behind bars. The story highlights a host of problems with our criminal justice system: trumped-up charges; long periods of imprisonment prior to being convicted; and the negligence and mistreatment of people who experience health problems while incarcerated. "Price was arrested in August 2020 after...

When Chastity Murry had her first psychotic break, she went into her bathroom and downed a whole bottle of pills, hoping to die. Her teenage daughter had to perform CPR to save her life. Around that same time more than a decade ago, the man who would become her husband, Dante Murry, also lost touch with reality and considered suicide. Different illnesses led them down similar paths – bipolar disorder in her case and schizoaffective disorder in his – conditions long considered by many to be distinct and unrelated. But a growing body of research shows that bipolar disorder, schizophrenia...