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Brain, mind and neuro disorders
Brain, mind and neuro disorders
A neuro-psychotic disorder of the brain, schizophrenia leads to structural changes in white matter, cortical grey matter, cognitive impairment and neurotransmitter dysfunction. The characteristic feature of schizophrenia (meaning split mind) was the predominance of psychotic symptoms. |
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Recent studies through neuro-imaging technique have found that an index of enhanced transmission of dopamine (chemicals found in brain) was linked with the deterioration of the patient’s condition, said Professor Eileen Joyce, Raymond Way Chair in Neuropsychiatry at the Institute of Neurology in London. She was delivering the 22nd K Gopalakrishna endowment lecture organised by the Institute of Neurological Sciences of the VHS in Chennai on Saturday. The term schizophrenia was coined by Bleuler, a contemporary of psychologist Edmund Freud. It was left to Kraepelin in the early 20th Century to give a pathological name called Dementia Praecox to the neuro-disorder for it affected those in late adolescence with a steady deterioration from then on. ‘Nearly two-thirds of those affected are unable to fulfill their social roles and patients have to undergo prolonged suffering with heavy cost to their families and the society,’ Joyce said. Bleuler focused on the psychological disorder in schizophrenia giving rise to splitting of psychic functions like thoughts, emotions and inter-connecting events in the brain. In 1950s and 60s, the discovery of antipsychotic drugs led to the inhibition of dopamine. In 1976 a path-breaking study of the schizophrenic brain through CT (computerised tomography) found the enlargement of cerebral ventricles. And studies that followed proved that damage to frontal or medial temporal lobes (of the brain) could be seen in patients with schizophrenia which then was accepted as a neuro-psychiatric disorder. Explaining further, Joyce said the structural abnormalities of the brain were present even before the development of psychotic symptoms and cognitive impairment mostly preceded the onset of psychosis. There were conclusive findings that point out schizophrenia as a brain disorder with a neuro pathological process that affected the structure and functions of the cerebral cortex and its white matter connections resulting in cognitive deficits, she said. Sometime psychotic symptoms manifested itself due to synaptic pruning, a self-regulatory process in the brain as part of its continuous networking with neurons. ‘During psychotic flare-up in the onset of schizophrenia, there is an increase in the release of dopamine leading to a condition of aberrant salience,’ she said. In the state of ‘aberrant salience’, dopamine was released at random points for non-important events taking place in the environment, leading to delusions among patients. Dwelling on the factors causing schizophrenia, a complex form of neuro-developmental disorder, Joyce said factors like genetic component, prenatal infection and malnutrition, perinatal ischaemia, drug abuse mostly those addicted to cannabis and urban environment have all combine together to create abnormalities in the brain. |
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| sara_00 | Brain, mind and neuro disorders | 2 | Jan 2 2009, 5:35 AM EST by sara_narasimhan | ||
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