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New study led by University of Montreal scientists identifies genetic association This release is available in French. Montreal, April 12, 2010 – An international study led by Université de Montréal scientists suggests that gene mutations may predispose some individuals to schizophrenia and provides new clues about the causes of this ambiguous disorder. Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings demonstrate that new mutations in the SHANK3 gene are found in schizophrenic patients. "That these de novo or new mutations occur in schizophrenia is rather unexpected and may explain why the identification of the genes...

A WOMAN has been found guilty of stalking, in a bizarre case in which she tried to organise acts of violence against herself. The Mercury reports Ellen Hazel Triffett, 53, of the Tasmanian Central Highlands, was given a suspended jail sentence yesterday for stalking her local store owner. The Hobart Magistrates Court heard Bronte Park general store owner Wayne Turale started receiving a series of disturbing letters in October 2006. Over 18 months, he received 10 of the poorly written letters, instructing him to perform or organise acts of violence against Mrs Triffett, who was one of his customers. Each...

Autism and schizophrenia may be two sides of the same coin, suggests a review of genetic data associated with the conditions. The finding could help design complementary treatments for the two disorders. Though autism was originally described as a form of schizophrenia a century ago, evidence for a link has remained equivocal. One theory puts the conditions at opposite ends of a developmental spectrum. To investigate, Bernard Crespi, an evolutionary biologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues gathered data on all known genetic variants associated with each condition, then looked for patterns of co-occurrence. The researchers found...

Demonstrators call for firing of officer videotaped striking mentally disabled man   More than 100 people gathered today outside Passaic City Hall to demand that the Police Department fire an officer who was videotaped striking a mentally disabled man repeatedly with a baton and his fists. Ronnie Holloway, the man beaten in the May 29 incident, and his mother, Betty, attended the peaceful demonstration, which was organized by various community leaders.  “This man should never have gone through what he did,” said Zachary McDaniel, pastor of the Second Timothy Baptist Church in Passaic. “Cops are here to protect us. How can...

Scientists study affect of gluten on mental health Scottish scientists believe that gluten-rich foods could help trigger schizophrenia in people with a genetic predisposition to the condition. Scottish scientists believe that gluten-rich foods could help trigger schizophrenia in people with a genetic predisposition to the condition. The researchers at the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) are looking at the links between schizophrenia and diabetes. The two studies undertaken by geneticist Dr Jun Wei and his team in Inverness are to be funded by £300,000 from the Schizophrenia Association of Great Britain. The first project is to explore...

Schizophrenia and autism probably share a common origin, hypothesises Dutch researcher Annemie Ploeger following an extensive literature study. The developmental psychologist demonstrated that both mental diseases have similar physical abnormalities which are formed during the first month of pregnancy.

Obama is Hiding Mental History in His Medical Records. Sounds like a diagnosis for Adolf Hitler Obama Medical Records: Obama Refuses Release. What is He Hiding? 71 year old Sen. McCain has released his medical records but not the young and seemingly healthy Sen. Obama. Lets clear this up first. Barack Obama's name was "Barry Hussein Obama" but in college during his identity crisis he changed it to "Barack Hussein Obama" because Barry wasn't a black sounding name. He went with the traditional and formal African name Barack. Don't believe? Here is a high school yearbook picture of him with...

A new government study published Monday has found that the medicines most often prescribed for schizophrenia in children and adolescents are no more effective than older, less expensive drugs and are more likely to cause some harmful side effects. The standards for treating the disorder should be changed to include some older medications that have fallen out of use, the study’s authors said. The results, being published online by The American Journal of Psychiatry, are likely to alter treatment for an estimated one million children and teenagers with schizophrenia and to intensify a broader controversy in child psychiatry over the...

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...