Neurology, Addiction and Psychiatry Conference

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe psychiatric illness that cuts deeply into a person's ability to think, feel, or behave. Periods of psychosis in schizophrenia often present as hallucinations, delusional thinking, and dysfunctional thought patterns which can greatly impair an individual's functionality in everyday activities. The disorder usually starts within late adolescence or early adulthood and may lead to lifelong impairment of cognitive, emotional, and social functions. Whereas the exact cause of schizophrenia cannot be found, researchers now think of it as a disorder brought about by a combination of genetic, environmental, and neurobiological factors.

There are three major symptoms of schizophrenia: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms. Some of the psychotic behaviors that are not common in mentally healthy people include hallucination, which has been described as hearing or seeing something that isn't there, and delusions, false beliefs not in harmony with reality. Negative symptoms are disturbances in normal emotions and behaviors including flattened affect, lack of motivation and interest, social withdrawal, and motivation or interest issues. Cognitive symptoms--or disturbances affecting memory, attention, and decision-making abilities--often make patients unable to care for themselves.

The pathogenesis of schizophrenia is assumed to be complex and multi-factorial. Considerable evidence indicates that the predisposition to schizophrenia is a combination of genetic susceptibility and neurodevelopmental abnormalities, such as imbalances in dopamine and glutamate neurotransmitter systems. Besides those factors that occur during the foetal period, some other environmental factors, for example, prenatal stress, exposure to viruses, or traumatic events increase schizophrenia risk in genetically predisposed people. Other structural brain differences, including smaller gray matter volume in parts of the brain, are also observed in people with schizophrenia.

This treatment of schizophrenia is usually based on the use of antipsychotic medication that will relieve symptoms by modifying neurotransmitter systems within the brain. Most studies related to successful treatments for schizophrenia are based on second-generation antipsychotics for both reducing positive symptoms and having fewer side effects than older medicines. Negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, however, are more difficult to be treated and require essential psychosocial interventions like CBT, family therapy, and rehabilitation programs.

Early intervention and consistent treatment may improve long-term outcomes as well as control symptoms of individuals afflicted with schizophrenia. Although no cure exists for this serious mental disorder, the continued discovery of neurobiology continues to unlock wide doors to innovative therapeutic approaches that may more comprehensively address the complex symptoms of patients with schizophrenia and ultimately bring hope for an improved quality of life for those suffering from this condition.