Free Republic

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...