Could Schizophrenia Be Entirely Genetic?
By MedHeadlines • Mar 29th, 2008 • Category: Bipolar Disorder, Family, Genetic Diseases, Headlines, Medical Research, Neurology, Psychology, SchizophreniaThe latest gene-scanning technology may have shed some much-desired light on a potential cause for schizophrenia, a mental disorder characterized by delusions and scrambled thought processes. The disease is believed to affect 1% of the population.
Until now, medical scientists were searching for the cause of the disease in a cluster of factors, none of which produced particularly promising results. Previous studies have searched for shared genetic sequences among patients and how the drugs prescribed for the disease work with brain cells. The cause has remained elusive but recently developed high-resolution technology capable of scanning the complete DNA map has revealed some very rare genetic variations common in schizophrenics that have been heretofore undetectable.
The discovery, considered a paradigm shift by colleagues, is the result of a combined study involving researchers at the National Institute of Health, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the University of Washington in Seattle. Researchers scanned blood samples from 150 schizophrenics and a control group of 268 samples from people who do not have the disease.
53 mutations in the DNA sequence were detected. These mutations were found to occur in 15% of people with schizophrenia and 5% in those not affected by the disease. The disease usually becomes apparent in adulthood but a very rare form sometimes develops during childhood. When the blood samples of people with this rare childhood form of the disease were analyzed, a rare mutation known to alter genetic function was four times more likely to occur. Heredity plays a role in some of the mutations identified but others spontaneously occur at or shortly after conception.
One of the ways the genetic mutations affect brain function is by distorting the ability to guide neurons to the correct locations in the brain during development. Another alters the shape of a glutamate-transporting molecule. Glutamate is required to excite neurons so signals can be effectively transmitted from cell to cell.
Researchers haven’t yet determined if these genetic mutations work alone to cause schizophrenia or if they work in conjunction with other processes. The research team is optimistic, however, that the ever-improving state of gene-scanning technologies will help solve the mystery of this very disturbing disease. They also express the hope of using similar technologies to learn more about other diseases of the mind, including autism, bipolar disorder, and depression.
Today’s issue of the journal Science carries complete details of the study.
- How likely do you think it is, that Schizophrenia could be entirely genetic, with no involvement of triggering factors?
Hello,
My mother is schizophrenic, my brother was as well.
My brother died last year, at age 53. He had had the disorder since childhood.
I am interested in biology and medicine and have studied both. I am also a student of shamanism. I have studied with a traditional healer in the Peruvian jungle.
Yes, there is probably a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. There is also a spiritual dimension that is ignored by the medical profession.
My brother was “inhabited” by a very evil being who was not my brother. It became very obvious during the ceremonies I participated in on his behalf.
I was able to be by my brother’s bedside before he died, and that being was very aware of me and the ceremonies. It was very scary.
There was no way for my brother to be aware of my work on his behalf, and yet the being new.
I was able to help my brother go in peace.
I know this seems strange. Schizophrenia is strange.
I believe that we will not address the fundamental root of the disease as long as we do not address the spiritual nature of man. I hope that we can bring science and spirituality together in order to really help people in this terrible predicament.
Danielle
I was attracted to the statement, “Heredity plays a role in some of the mutations identified but others spontaneously occur at or shortly after conception.”
My father developed schizophrenia ostensibly late in life, perhaps 40’s, although I remember enough turmoil coming from him when I was around 3 or 4 that I suspect he was manifesting it in his 20’s or earlier. I wonder if some of the mutations actually deteriorate over a subject’s life, once begun, or if mutations happen later than just “shortly after conception.” My grandfather was a big drinker (I sometimes call him the Viking, since he was full blooded Norwegian). My grandmother had a mother who had been placed in an asylum. I and my siblings seem to be normal. Perhaps it’s a combination of birth and environment. My father also smoked, like his dad.
My brother has been diagnosed with ADHD, but sometimes he gets unreasonable like my dad. We wonder sometimes about him.
My limited understanding of genetics leads me to wonder if even if the genes have no role later in life, perhaps the cells that they plan for are less functional and prone to deterioration.
The last time I read anything on Schizophrenia was in the 1970’s after they discovered changing the diets of mental patients significantly reduced their symptoms, as if it was related to allergies or nutritional deficiencies.
Is it possible that these mutations in the genes are triggered by bad eating habits?
…there has never been any sound evidence for any non-genetic contributions to the probability of becoming schizophrenia. Children adopted away from schizophrenic parent/s into normal families show zero reduction in their risk. Children adopted out of normal families into families with one or both parents schizophrenic or future schizophrenic do not suffer any increase in their risk for becoming schizophrenic. The fact that a sizable fraction of monozygotic twins of schizophrenics are not also schizophrenic is not evidence of “environmental” contributions, for several reasons: not all twins thought to be “identical’ are actually monozygotic; schizophrenia involves important elements of left-right brain function asymmetry and twins are not normal in their development of left-right brain function asymmetry; there is no sound reason to expect even monozygotic twins to express the same genes the same way. ….nobody learns how to be schizophrenic
My mother, now 66, is schizophrenic. She was diagnosed at 16. She began treatments and hospitalizations in her 20’s. Her aunt on her father’s side was also schizophrenic. This was back in the 1920’s when people were just kept locked away at home. My mother now has a young niece in her teens who has a similar problem. Do I think schizophrenia is genetic? Ablsoutely!
However, it doens’t necessiarilly follow a linear line of progression form parent to child. I often wonder why it seems to “skip around” in the family tree. What genetic combinations allow me to not have the disease and yet my cousin has it?
Interesting comment, Danielle.
I know several schizophrenics, one is a close friend, and I also have a cousin suffering from this affliction. Until very recently would have dismissed your comment out of hand, but for one thing you said: “There was no way for my brother to be aware of my work on his behalf, and yet the being new.”
The strange thing is, one day my friend disclosed a piece of information about me publicly that only I knew.
Now, I consider myself to be a realist and I do not believe in supernatural explanations, but the fundamental question in my mind stays: How is this even remotely possible?
Perhaps Jung’s collective unconscious is a place and his archetypes are alive? I don’t even want to go there…
The first thing that springs to my mind is perhaps there is a link between excessive amounts of free glutamate in the diet and schizophrenia. I am an honors science student who always wanted to be a doctor and have done lots of self education becuase our education system in Florida is warped twisted and corrupt. Worthy of mention is how “food scientists” have managed to hide excessive amounts of glutamic acid in almost everything we eat these days in order to get us hooked and coming back for more. Glutamic acid used was invented by Kikunae Ideka circa 1908 at a Japanese University. Japanese chefs have for thousands of years used seaweed to enhance the taste of their dishes. Ikeda is credited with “discovering” the flavor enhancing properties of glutamic acid, a non-essential amino acid. Up until approximately the 1950’s glutamic acid was extracted from seaweed. After the 50’s however, it became more “economical” to use genetically modified E. Coli bacteria, “reprogrammed” to churn out free and unbound glutamic acid which reportedly, in it’s unbound state, easily crosses the blood-brain barrier. Glutamic acid used to be added to baby food, but that is no longer the case, as the very young have an even more undeveloped blood brain barrier than adults. Not to say it doesn’t cause damage to the adult brain as well. All of the studies that claim that glutamic acid are safe are financed by the Ajinomoto Corporation of Japan, largest manufacturer of MSG in the world, and they got into legal troubles at one point for price fixing. The word monopolist comes to mind, in blatant violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Nevertheless the moral of the story is alway be aware of what one is eating, become familiar with the other names that MSG is hidden under. Avoid eating processed and packaged foods on a regular basis, try to cut them out entirely if at all possible. Also, always be cognizant of what corporation has financed a particular study, though it’s not always easy to tell; a monopolizing corporation’s sole goal is to maximize profits, that includes publishing “papers” that make certain claims about the safety of their products.
How likely do I think Schizophrenia is entirely genetic? ZERO! It’s in the field that operates the DNA and the molecules and mutations are byproducts. Same as with all disease. It’s time to dispense with the drugs and treat the most challenging diseases at a higher level of causation. It’s “Time for Revolution!”
Sadly, I think this article, the headline, is to boost the bio-tech industry. If these problems are all genetic, why not manipulate people’s genes? Any socially unaccepted social behavior can be attributed to genetics. Those differing from the norms can have their genes altered for their good, and society’s. I appreciate the information about MSG, the history and am sending that on.
What I think is that the totally genetic viewpoint fails to consider how a child is treated, as a child, and how the neural pathways develop as a result. There are issues there that should be considered. It seems to me that the genetic approach is similar to the Prozac approach, rather than doing the work of changing behavior, you compel with drugs.
My son, Bill, became schizophrenic when he was 17 years old. He is now 51, and still suffers from the disase. A few years after the onslaught of the disase, he lost all ability to speak in a coherent fashion, in other words his words were word salad. For this reason he was kept on a locked ward at the Norwalk, Ca. mental hospital for over 10 years. It was at this time that a friend told me about how electric shock therapy cured his son of the word salad speech problem. So after much research, and with some trepiation, my wife and I arranged for Bil to undertake ECT treatments. They were a huge success!
He got his speech back but was still very paronoid. Fortunately about this time Clozroil came onto the scence and my son started that treatment regimen. Gradually, he began to improve, albeit over a number of years…….to the point that he is now about 90% of where he should be.
One of the things that I have noticed is that if someone is going to get this disase, they get it right after going into pueberty, and no later than about age 36. That tells me that there is a direct coorelation between the on-set and the diminishment of sex hormones that relate to the triggering (or not) of this disase. I think it would be very helpful if our scientific community could isolate exactly what this corelation is with a few for preventing it.
Having schizophrenia occur at the onset of sex hormones may again point to neural pathways, and how the child was treated. One should consider whether the child suffered some sexual trauma or abuse, not known or recognized by the parents, i.e, babysitter, relative, etc. The trauma could be buried in the child’s mind until sexual awareness forced the subject closer to consciousness. If the subject can not be faced, would schizophrenia result? It may be that genetically some children are more susceptible to schizophrenia, but if they have trauma locked inside them, using drugs to keep it locked there seems not the solution.
Are 90% of the commenters on here subscribers to some paranoid amazon alternative therapy magazine?? Excess Glutamate? Shamanism? MSG kills? What the heck???
There is evidence the actual CAUSE may be viral; the vast majority of mothers of schizophrenics report viral infections during pregnancy. But the predisposition is inherited. Like diabetes, if one does not come in contact with the contagion at a critical time, the disease does not develop. The combination of both factors explains the occurrences, and the lack thereof. Twins are a good example; if one twin develops schizophrenia, the other twin is very likely to also develop the disease. But, some sets of identical twins have only one twin affected, so physical environment plays some role.
If someone were to state Mental illness does not exist, all one would have to do in order acquire a meager concept of Mental Illness would be to take a cursory look at THE GROUPs associated with inventing such mental illnesses (i.e. its sources). That is an extremely bold statement to make. “…inventing mental illnesses.”. I suppose this argument presents the paradox of the all too common question of “did the egg come before the chicken?”, or “did the Psychiatrist come before the mental illness?”.
Why would someone like me or millions of others even begin to imply such a blithe notion that Mental Illness is invented by a group of charlatans? After all, people do have rough days, drink excessively and sometimes feel nervous speaking in front of audiences. Adults can also, not even mentioning children, have a bit of difficult time sitting still, in hard wooden or plastic chairs, and concentrating for extended periods of time. After all, couldn’t the entire sum of human responses or emotional difficulties be categories as mental illness (e.g. recently manufactured disorders: jet lag, grinding teeth, emailing & texting excessively) and be addressed with one form or another of a narcotic? Since the mental health experts are only able to diagnose and adjudicate a patient’s mental stability based solely on subjective intuition, where unfortunately lacking a clear-cut blood or forensic test. Couldn’t any and all abnormality (besides of course physically in nature) be classify and/or categorized as a mental health problem (e.g. picking of nose, road rage, excessive surfing of the internet, etc.)?
Without a doubt, no one would argue that any eccentricity (one degree or another) in human behavior found could be classified, codified and categorized as a mental health illness. Perhaps because (as reported) “mental illness is WAY too complicated of a subject”, is it too much to ask for accurate causes thus leading to such a diagnosis and medication versus just tagging someone with a “disorder”? - meaning, hypothetically; who wouldn’t demand answers from their car mechanic explaining the cause and/or source of their engine problems, let alone ongoing visits (2-5 visits weekly) to get the same engine tuned or adjusted? Personally, some people would want some answers.
What about all the millions of people who have supposedly been assisted by the myriad of FDA rated Class II anti-psychotics/depressants drugs currently on the market (compared by many experts and the FDA to have similar side effects and as addictive as heroin)? Does the human body (i.e. 4 year children) have a deficiency in Abilify, Prozac, Adderall or the myriad of other antipsychotics/depressants given out on the market? If these drugs are as safe as reported, why do people die when taken off these drugs, or for that matter, kill others as in the last 15 years of school shootings?
Some perhaps would argue these drugs simply mask the sources and perhaps prolong the inevitable. Again, that being the case, why is the public so complacent in demanding results in the “on-going” effort to isolate the source of these manufactured disorders – where more mysterious mental disorders are invented each day? Many say it’s simply something you have to live with, and the drugs make makes people feel better. Poppycock! Is there any difference in now who we call “Drug Lords”? Psychiatry = Drug Lord
How could one deny people actually feel and operate better on these high powered narcotics? After all, it doesn’t take a genius to see that Johnny is now able to sit still in those hard plastic/wooden chairs for 8 hours straight while attending class and that Betty is certainly more able to attended social gatherings without eating up her insides.
Do these drugs change the way we feel?
What’s wrong with the way we feel and who is saying it? Can the root (Psychiatry, Pharmaceutical, DSM, etc.) of all these dreaded mental disorders cure the actual cause(s) of what’s wrong with people in society, or are we going further down a road with more classifications, more people (children too) entwined in chemical straitjackets, addicted to medication (thus turning a profit) and ushering in a new brave world where everyone on the street has some “disorder” that can be cured with a magical little pill? In ten years from now, will the topics of conversation be “What disorder do you have and what are you taking for it?” Hasn’t a patterns been forming here where the Pharmaceutical companies have been engaging in putting the illicit drug lords out of business? Who wouldn’t want some of that cheddar? $$$$
Not only do we have synthetic mental disorders being created; we now have Eli Lilly generating more business in the form of unnatural creation of diabetes.
No question it’s genetic–when they start treating it that way is when you will know for sure. I have family member with the illness –so, I’ve studied it a bit. The classic symptoms and age that it hits have to be genetically inspired. I am absolutely sure how people are treated as children and all that have nothing to do with it. Chemical exposure or illnesses the mother had during pregnancy my have a some impact. It’s a terrible affliction; it would be wonderful if they could cure or a least treat it with medicines that have fewer less drastic side effects.
Unfortunately the MedHeadlines article, in common with most reports on the McClellan et al. research, is quite misleading. Yes, the study did find that three times more people diagnosed as schizophrenic had this type of mutation. However, only 15% of the group diagnosed as schizophrenic had this type of mutation (compared to 5% of the ‘normal’ group). In other words - by far the majority of people (85%) diagnosed as schizophrenic DO NOT HAVE THIS TYPE OF MUTATION. I think the most realistic interpretation of the results are that schizophrenia is not a single disease but a convenient diagnosis to give to all sorts of people who show strange behavior. If you have a certain type of genetic mutation you are three times more likely to be diagnosed as schizophrenic than normal. However, the vast majority (85%) of people who are diagnosed as schizophrenic do not have this type of mutation. They behave strangely, and are consequently diagnosed as shizophrenic, for other reasons.
PepsiJuror, obviously you have had zero experience with mentally ill people and have not had any friends or family who were mentally ill. You need to experience the mentally ill before medical treatments are successfully applied, and then see the end results of those who have been helped by these treatments. Much of the mentally ill do not even pay for their medications, the taxpayers do so instead. The US government is brutal concerning the mentally ill, since bringing about deinstitutionalization and cutting back on mental health programs to the bone. The government pays for the medications because they are working at keeping the mentally ill out of institutions and giving them a life in the real world, where instead they would be wandering the streets aimlessly completely out of their minds. When was the last time you saw a naked person running around the streets blabbering incoherently, hurting themselves or others? This scene was quite common before institutionalization, people out of their minds acting strangely and being violent was a real problem for society. Now with deinstitutionalization, there still remains a good control, few people, as long as they take their medication, are found acting weird or causing harm who are mentally ill. The government would like to simply abandon the mentally ill, so if they continue to make an investment into mental health and medications it is because it is necessary and absolutely required and needed. Perhaps someday you will experience mental illness and become violent or suicidal, maybe then you will appreciate the system in place and all the science that has gone into trying to alleviate such illnesses. Do not count on your mental faculties being functional your whole life, at any time you could become mentally ill, especially as you get older. Isn’t it nice to know that there will be people and treatments ready to help you live with or get though mental illness.
I do agree that it’s got to be genetic to some degree, but I think there must be various triggers for it. It’s a terrifying and life-destroying illness that hurts whole families, not just the ill person. Anyone who thinks this is just an “alternative” way of thinking hasn’t lived on a daily basis with someone deeply psychotic. (I recommend the book “When Madness Comes Home” by Victoria Secunda, for those struggling with familial schizophrenia.) I find it interesting that some of the posts here which Joe finds so befuddling might be indicative of the “schizotypy” personality trait not uncommon in close relatives of schizophrenics. One of the hallmarks of the type is a readiness to believe in the supernatural or magic. As a sibling and daughter of schizophrenics I was fascinated when I recently learned of schizotypy from the books of the amazing researcher/writer, Robert Sapolsky. I wish all the researchers working on this illness God Speed and offer them my gratitude.
I agree with Martin. The study really only shows that a small portion of schizophrenia patients has similar mutations, while the vast majority don’t. It’s a huge leap from this study to the thought that schizophrenia has a genetic cause.
Personally, I think that schizophrenia is caused by a complex combination of genetics, brain chemistry, and environment. We, as a society, seem to be looking for easy answers to complex problems. Genetics is only one player in the problem of disease. I think we need a more holistic approach and include the larger picture of how our genes interact with other factors.
After 50 years of experience with a close relative diagnosed with “schizophrenia” at an early age, 1000’s of drugs, 100’s of doctors - I have come to firmly agree with Thomas Szasz and R. D. Laing. Shame on our ill informed society of doctors, drug industry who have carried on what amounts to a charade. I have come to believe that it is nothing other than an inherent personality trait that is in direct conflict with what is defined as acceptable limits of behavior as defined by “society”. When confronted with this awareness of difference, anxiety and fear results, leading to delusions and voices. These people are extreme personalities in conflict with a society that cannot tolerate their extreme personality differences. Drugs work - for a short while - then go on to create irreversible havoc. Ultimately, they stop working and create their own delusions to the point it is impossible to separate the “disease” from the “drug”. I infact regard it as proof that after all these years of billions of dollars of research and treatment on “mind altering drugs”, the fact that ECT seems to have the best results is proof that it is not a disease at all! It has the best short term results. And a series of short term results is exactly all that one could hope for and needs! Especially, when time after time, it is one conflict after another. Remove the sources of conflict and watch the improvement. Sleep, love, ultimate acceptance, encouragement, removal of all sources of anxiety have all had tremendous effect. This requires the greatest efforts from other family members and in most cases is even impossible given our own pressures. However, after years of dependence on prescription drugs, which make the patient an insufferable addict, barely capable of functioning at a 40-50% level, suffering from extreme grogginess all the time, the road to “recovery” is all but impossible. The root cause is not addressed - because at the root is not a disease in a pathological sense - but merely a personality difference.
Geminate - “Isn’t it nice to know that there will be people and treatments ready to help you live with or get though mental illness.”
This is the exact complacency millions of affected people and groups are sick of! This is called Blind faith and acceptance under the guise of “Health”.
Despite their annual 100+ new mental disorders, does Psychiatry produce permanent, long lasting results?
What really irritates many is the overwhelming level of leniency Psychiatry receives (basically where they’re above the law) because they’re supposedly working in the field of terra-incognita. Psychiatry states they are perplex at to the causes and sources of mental illness. How does this make them experts concerning the human mind and allow them to make obscene amounts in billings each year. Take a real basic and close look - if Psychiatry were to ever prove that a chemical imbalance existed in the body, that particular illness would immediately be handed over to Neurology or perhaps Physiology. To date, no physical illness (e.g. diabetes, thyroid cancer, etc) has ever been discovered by Psychiatry and turned over to a credible science.
I can tell you are an extremely forgiving person in regards to isolating a cause for mental illness. Most people on the other hand (especially mothers whose children have died due to Psychiatric intervention) are not as lenient. But, for some, there are acceptable losses – for others, a single unnecessary death is unacceptable. For all the money and medication being piped into society (over the past 70+ years), people justifiably want to see results. In light of the recent Illinois University school shooting and the subsequent outrage surrounding SSRI’s, perhaps people just aren’t being as tolerant as you, or perhaps tolerant enough.
I do know people who have suffer from mental illness, and families who have successfully gotten to the bottom of it without the use of narcotics. The difference is, many people have become so utterly apathic about isolating a REAL solution and this resorted to popping a pill. Since the “Popping the Pill” solution has worked for so many, it has become status quo to pop a pill whenever something goes wrong versus actually finding the root of the problem.
Doesn’t it stand to reason that if you or others knew what the problem was, it would cease to be a problem. …but the so called professionals say with much edifice “it’s too complicated of a subject to understand” and many people believe them. Until the problem can be isolated, the so call professionals are taking blind stabs in the dark and using our children and society as their test subjects.
I wouldn’t disagree for a moment that mental disorders exist. The source of all mental disorders can always be traced back to some element, exterior to the person, which affected the individual. Whether a practitioner wishes to either lazily place an individual on some narcotic or actually take the time to trace back and actually locate the particular thing which triggered the mental issue (the unknown) dictates whether that practitioner person really wanted to help or make a buck!
Everyone reacts to daily events – moods and moral ebbs and flows. If one loses their job – count on a normal human reaction of that person to have low moral. I’m sorry to break it you, this is not a mental disorder – if you didn’t feel low moral after being out of work for say 2-3 weeks, something would be wrong. If one were to see someone or perhaps many people die, they are going to be depressed. This is normal human reaction. If that person didn’t become depressed, something would most certainly be wrong.
Mental Disorders are not as random as many have previous supposed. Always, always, always, always, something externally triggered the issue. The chemical straightjacket solution is NOT A SOLUTION!
I personally don’t know anyone who would let their dentist drill on a tooth before an X-Ray was complete thus demonstrating the problem and the process to handle it. This is where the dentist (or any other such science) is actually LOOKING and addressing the problem at hand (and not some other nebulous or invented issue). Knowing is where all guess work is removed – this is where one would acquire the same measurable and predictable results each time (or also known as a science).
Illinois University Shooting: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/20/shoo...
Virginia Tech Shooting: http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5...
Columbine Shooting: http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9904/29/luvox….
Like any disease, it may be genetic predisposition, environmental conditions, or spiritually influenced. The Bible lends credence to demonic influences, but I think there are also genuine cases of mental illnesses not necessarily caused by sin or demonic influences. So naturally, each situation must be examined in the light of all possibilities. My brother has been sick for 20 years and lives with me ( I am a bible believing Christian). I have noticed when my spiritual condition is neglected, his condition gets worse, and when I get right with God, he does noticeably better. So I am convinced there is a spiritual element to this…but I will stop short of saying it is entirely spiritual.
Wow……… interesting……….. I’m not so sure about Schizophrenia being hereditary and it might be but I enjoyed hearing what Wayne had to say because that’s just what it all comes down to for me……….. I am schizophrenic and I’ve been through multiple episodes where I just really go on a tear for about a 6 month period and I become very delusional and my social interactions can be kind of confusing and so the most recent episode was last summer and it always ends up felling as though everyone in your world has abandoned you………….. and that is really a very true statement, I think it is true that this is a personality trait that isn’t defined as acceptable to most, and for a long time, when I myself looked back at these episodes even I felt pretty embarassed and to a certain point I still do, but when I was talking to a woman one day, about some of the situations that took place she thought that maybe I should accept them a bit more and I really agree with that……. sometimes it’s difficult because I’ll see people in the neighborhood and I feel as though there a bit wary around me………….. and I do have a bit of a beef with this kind of Pill cure all solution, I tend to feel as though these Pharmaceutical companies and the doctors that work with them as well are just making a huge profit on people’s so called illnesses, and I feel like there are so many people with mental illnesses these days and I’m not so sure that our medical system is dealing with things quite right……….. but that topic in and of itself is a huge one………….. but for me more recently I’ve just been trying to eat well and exercise and accept what happens and not feel to bad about the differences……….. I appreciate others that are accepting of the personality differences though………….. and it can take a huge amount of patience at times……………
Wow! This is my first time reading medical posts like these! So inspiring! I love the passion, it shows we care… This subject is of obvious interest to me as well (Please watch for the book “Looking Through the Eyes of An Unseen Child” coming out in June on the subject of Multiple Personalities and Child Abuse) and my recent research turned me on to an article that discussed the idea that a variety of conditions (including Mitral Valve Prolapse, Schizophrenia, and many others) may merely be symptoms of an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system. And, studying the nervous system on the whole is almost entirely impossible, so… My personal belief is that ALL of the comments made have truth in them - spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally… To be WHOLE human beings is to acknowledge the cumulation of parts into ONE cohesive entity. We are better served by pursuing BALANCE, rather than a CURE - but BALANCE is harder to sell on the main market, so advertising promotes end results… How many of us would actually pay $$$ for something that “might work if all the conditions are just right…”?!? In the end, it is the classic caveat “buyer beware” that holds us all individually accountable to finding the BALANCE that makes our personal lives complete. And, in the end, it is passion and love that lead us to the ANSWER!
There is continually mounting evidence that schizophrenia is a biogenetic process, and absolutely no credible evidence that it is anything other than a biogenetic process. Unfortunately there is also a huge, albeit declining, psychotherapy industry, made up of are thousands of unemployed and underemployed “psychotherapists, many of whom call themselves “doctor”, who have a vested financial interest in obscuring the scientific facts about schizophrenia and other psychiatric (biogenetic) disorders.
It is depressing to me that anyone still questions that schizophrenia is genetic. My father was bipolar and sometimes diagnosed as schizophrenic. My brother suffers from depression. My son and daughter have ADHD and my son’s brain scans show many of the same qualities seen in bipolar illness. When I had children I was reassured by the current psychobabble of the time that children were born blank slates and by raising them properly we could “fix” any predisposition. We can help, we can strengthen, we can encourage and nurture, but I do not for a moment believe parents can chance the “human nature” of their children. There is a general reluctance in our current culture to accept that we are born with individual brains and everything we think and feel is electrochemical activity of our neuronal cells. Just as we are born with certain personality characteristics, propensities to various hereditary diseases (cancers that run in families, autoimmune diseases etc.) mental illnesses from phobias to depression run in families. This holds true even in adopted children, who resemble the biological parents they have never met, not their adopted family, in terms of all health risk factors and many components of personality. Instinctively humans “feel” this can’t be so, but science is evidence based and the science is incontrovertible.
I get a little tired of science labelling anything they don’t understand as “Schizophrenic,’ or “bi-polar.” Had the Bible Prophets of old lived today, they’d labelled them with those terms. Had Nastradamus lived today, they’d labelled him too. True, there are mental disorders. For years, the Church dealt with them as demonic possession. I’m also sure that there are real cases of mental illness that are genetical. In some cases, it’s the mind, picking up RF signals, because they just happened to have a brain tuned to it. And, in some cases, it’s actually psyops programs and government mind control. ( I think it’s pretty much a proven fact that not only did the US Government participate in such programs, when they brought over nazi scientists after World War II, during Operation: Paperclip.)
But, we as a society must quit labelling everyone that is different as Schizo. And, I believe we do that, so Big Pharma can push their drugs on the populace, cause, a drugged populace is less likely to resist a totalitarian state, like the one the Bush Administration is trying to build.)
Having worked with the mentally ill for three decades, I am convinced that schizophrenia is genetically based. I also believe that some cases are ‘triggered’ by the use of mind-altering illegal drugs as well as alcohol - although I have to admit that there is all sorts of evidence pointing to the use of these substances as ’self medication’. Chicken or egg? probably both.
I have seldom come across a case where there was no familial evidence of some sort of mental illness. My choice of career was largely based on seeing a class-mate spin out of control while all around him were baffled by his actions. By the time assistance, such as it was, was obtained he was deep into psychosis. Now, years later, he only functions marginally - a far cry from the bright and socially active teenager he once was. As we found out, his family was riddled with mental illness.
While there has been some improvement in the outlook for many schizophrenics, there has been nothing spectacular since antipsychotic medication became available. While I don’t believe in analysis as a psychiatric ‘treatment’, I do think that counselling and group therapy is of benefit in assisting the mentally ill to cope. Early intervention has also proven beneficial.
The comments are resplendent with anecdotal evidence of this or that causes schizophrenia. Increasingly, however, it is becoming clearer that at the very least there is a strong genetic component. My experience (also anecdotal I confess) is that mental diseses tend to run often in families.
I recall with sadness how in the UK in the 1970 R D Lang positioned schizophrenia as a mental issue brought on by familial pressures and so the family of many schizophrenics were made to feel guilty because they were the cause of the disease.
How I wish one could wake Lang up from the grave to point out the grave injustice and hurt he visited on families already under stressed by having a mentally ill member. Lang’s bogus and sanctimonious teachings created much hurt and pain.
I have intermittent schizophrenia. (My aunt has paranoia and more minor symptoms as well.)
Intermittent as in, when I consume certain foods, I go absolutely nuts. These foods are the nightshades: tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum/bell peppers, chili, etc. It is so horrible. The room literally darkens, I suffer more than humans are meant to (though with no localised ‘pain’ - just pure suffering), and if it’s a bad enough episode, I can actually feel demons scabbling at my soul.
I have bitten myself, cut myself, broken things, screamed for 40 minutes straight, lifted things I cannot normally lift, dented the fridge from punching it, all out of pure misery. And in those episodes, I have no control. I am completely overtaken.
Two hours later, or thirty minutes, or whenever it lifts, within the space of 60 seconds I’ll return to completely normal. People become their own entities again, instead of figments or manipulable marionettes. My hulk-like strength subsides. I regain a capacity to love. I lose all the irrational fear, colours return in depth, and often I find myself covered in water, spittle or my own blood.
It took me over 20 years to figure out that these outbursts were related to what foods I ate. Now I am good, 98% of the time.
I’ve been institutionalised, medicated, theraputed, consulted, etc. No one even came close to addressing the issues. “Is it your family?” “Were there any traumatic events when you were younger?” “How do you feel about your social life?” The thing is, none of these external factors make a whit of difference. When I go crazy, it’s purely internal. I had an awesome childhood, compared to most people I’ve met. I have a loving marriage, a good balance of matieral challenges and comforts, I’m physically fit (quite!), eat virtually no processed foods, have a good community, etc. And yet, if I eat something contaminated with tomato, for example, none of it matters. None of it would have mattered anyway.
Hallucinations, screaming responses to invisible people, injuring myself… it has nothing to do with how I was raised. Everything to do with a condition I was born with.
I just wonder how many other people suffer, to a greater or lesser degree, due to certain foods, even natural foods like eggplant etc. If anyone else experiences what I do, please contact me: michelle[dot]craine at gmail[dot]com
Interesting discussion…I disagree that schizophrenia is simply a hereditary problem. My father was diagnosed with it, but no other relatives that I know of, although I hardly know any of them because everyone fanned out and moved to different cities and didn’t stay in touch. How wierd is that? The quality of relationships in both of my parents’ families was pretty bad. It seems that everyone was sour and distant, and perhaps my cousins might have done well simply from having better parents through marriage.
Both of my parents were extremely sour and distant. My father never seemed to hallucinate, but he had a very high IQ and was given to writing very long letters, like 50 pages. My brother seemed to follow his footsteps a bit, but mightn’t this be by example and experience?
I always wanted to be the complete opposite of my parents, and managed to become a healthy, happy person, by being a complete rebel! I always just wanted to be sane and happy. One of my many hobbies was child psychology, so I could understand better why I disliked my parents so much. Recent research has shown that the brain’s processes are changed by trauma, and it seems obvious that the earlier the trauma happens, the more it becomes part of your personality. The so-called “chemical imbalances” could very well be caused by trauma, child abuse, which no one will cop to. I’ve personally known some “crazy” people, and they were victims of serious child abuse, often by alcoholic or pedophilic parents.
Often, abusive parents put on a charade for the rest of the world, so it looks like their troubled offspring have “disorders” or “mental illness”. Maybe the parents have truly driven the child crazy.
All this is at the front of my mind, as it seems my brother’s problems are coming to a head. But, due to upbringing, we siblings are so distant from eachother and other relatives, that I feel helpless to help. At this point (pushing 60, with my own problems) it’s all I can do to keep my own head above water.
There could be another way to see this, that the spiritual and the genetic side are two sides of the same coin - that our spiritual reality is an extension of our real world (or the other way round). If this is the case there could be a real world correlation (no matter how tentative) between schizophrenia and spiritual matters.
A few thoughts:
1. Just like emotion (see Antonio Damasio’s work), spirituality could be a function of the human brain. This will not exclude the possibility of a spiritual world, only that human spirituality has a real word connection through the mind.
2. From the latest studies on the plasticity of the brain we know how our thinking can change the brain over time. Therefore, if our thoughts become scrambled through some “spiritual” influence one could expect that, over a long time, the brain could change its structure to accommodate our “new way of thinking”.
3. Current research on the epigenome (which we now know can also be transferred to our children) also seems to indicate that brain structure could be influenced by environmental issues (e.g. well-licked rats had more developed hippocampi than the ignored ones). Could this indicate that spiritual issues might have real world effects?
Obviously we have a long way to go. But if such a relationship between a “spiritual” and the real world indeed exists, then there might be a glimmer of hope that we could eventually treat some spiritual problems with real world technology. In the meantime, let us pray…
I suffer from schizophrenia and bipolar depression and I will say this: it is hereditary albeit a combination of other things. Fortunately, I have a ‘good prognosis’ as the doctor calls it, and I do because obviously I am aware that I have this problem and yet function in society. Also, I am a very spiritual person. I pray everyday and I am studying religion at a public university. There may be a ’spiritual’ link if you may. Now the most important aspect of helping someone with schizophrenia is love and support. This is so underrated. When one feels loved and appreciated, why would there be room for paranoid thoughts? Family, friends and a social network are important for sanity. Also, is taking care oneself. Furthermore, I know this is hereditary because my grandfather suffers from worse than I do. Unfortunately, I triggered this abnormality after using mind-altering drugs such as ‘chronic’ or marijuana, which was enough to trigger the supposed genes to an abnormal state. In regards to gene therapy, I am all for it albeit, the therapy is done ethically and is used to better people’s lives. However, I wish I knew more about Oriental medicine. They treat the body holistically. I would like to time the time to research their ideas, for as we know western medicine isolates the dysfunctional/abnormal part of a the body with malicious symptoms, whereas Chinese doctors and such treat the entire body with herbs and natural medicine.
By the way, people as myself appreciate others who show sensitivity for the plight of the ‘mentally ill.’ So thank you, I appreciated the comment from ‘orphan’ who seems to have compassionately worked with the mentally ill for ‘three decades.’ We should not discredit the help of nurses for mentally ill, it comes back to the support issue I talked about, which helps me tremendously from falling from grace.
What terrifies me is the proportion of Medieval people on this site. Foods, natural foods, therapy, anecdotal evidence… Mental deseases are fairly complicated things, and one person has no serious chance to interpret them correctly from his own experience. There is very strong evidence (I mean serious statistical evidence, based on a lot of data) that these things are genetically determined, for the most part. On the other hand, stomach ulcers were also supposed to be genetically predetermined, until they turned out to be an infectious desease - most of the time, anyway.
Honest analysis (of data that is), chemistry, medicine, statistics - we will get there soon enough. Even now, most Schizophrenics are managed satisfactorily… Just keep whole foods, Freud, spiritual stuff, Oriental Medicine, acupuncture, etc. away.
Schizophrenia is not a disease, its a social construct. Psychiatry is a pseudoscience that has killed millions of people. The drugs are neurotoxic agents, and all of biopsychiatry is guesswork, and has been for 50 years. Read the book ‘the gene illusion’ which lays to waste the alleged results of twin studies. Psychosis occurs always as a result of psychosocial stressors, and often fades to nothing within days when untreated with toxic drugs. World Health Org studies have shown that those untreated ’schizophrenics’ in the developing world do infinitely better than those treated with the ‘miracle’ drugs in the west. Read Bob Whitaker’s book ‘Mad in America’ and Peter Breggin’s book ‘Toxic Psychiatry’. Psychiatry peddles fear and manufactures disability by allowing initial psychoses never to heal, by keeping the person perpetually in a state of neurological perturbation thanks to the toxic drugs and guesswork pharmacology. There is nothing but myth, weasel words, so called ‘promising’ genetic science news stories on mental health come and go, and never is there any meat in the sandwich.
Families who choose to use psychiatry’s treatment and labeling system as a way of dealing with human distress, are just more likely to apply the same eagerness to use psychiatry when their family family members experience extreme states of mind. All the drugs are toxic, none have targeted action on any known biomechanics of delusional thought. Psychiatry knows nothing about the neurochemistry of the ideal normative brain state, nor the delusional mind, and has no answers apart from rampant dogmatism, mindless faith based biological determinism. And anybody that comes on here and rubbishes alternative modes of dealing with human distress, is a reductionist autocrat.
The fact that the alleged ‘onset’ of this ‘disease’ occurs upon the entry to adulthood, just proves the schisms that can occur as the pressures of advanced civilization and the modern world hit home to the person thrown headlong into the modern world. Taking a stone age baby and compelling them to attend indoctrination, in coercive schooling for twelve years, the breakdown of the family unit, the way our society hides death away and acts as if it is the last taboo, can make a first bereavement cause mental meltdown.
The reductionist scientistic ignorant ‘brain blamers’ are completely unqualified to speak on the experience of mental illness, as are even family members. You have absolutely no clue what the disastrous effects of being labeled a social pariah based on your ‘genes’ can do to somebody’s confidence, psychosocial identity, self esteem. And you also have no idea what psychiatry’s authority, and those trusting in it, can find happening to them when they accept the sellf fulfilling prophecy laid out to them by psychiatry. If you are told to expect to become psychotic again, and you are told you have a three in ten suicide rate, if you are told you will have mood swings every day, if you are told you will never hold a job, and society reinforces these prophecies, you can start to fall very far, and become the label.
No biomarkers exist. Haven’t done despite billions spent and decades searching. No legitimate science is to be found in psychiatry, it goes around in circles, with its quack theories, meanwhile permanent brain damage is caused by the drugs. Anyone unlucky to lose touch with reality even for one day out of a life of thousands of days, will be placed in a neuroprison of toxic drugs and chemical straight jackets/restraints, and will be condemned to be removed from the gene pool based on a mob mentality backed by pseudoscience and billion dollar corporate interests who make blood money from laying to waste people’s brains and identities, when no biological defect has ever been honestly identified in the lab, on the autopsy table, despite the pretty colorful fMRIs…. the emperor has no clothes, hasn’t had for some time, and if enough survivors of this abuse can free themselves from the chemical prison, and oppression of the label wantonly applied to them, and if enough of them are secular, we can have a movement.
Scientology is a red herring, don’t even bring it up, as some simple minded bigots no doubt will. A christian missionary organization can build wells in africa because they care about human rights, so can a new age religion care about human rights in mental health. The character assassination crew who come in to denigrate any secular opposition to psychiatry’s arbitrary and manufactured diagnostic system and toxic chemical brain assaults, need to realize, no one is more qualified to speak on mental illness than those that have experienced psychosis, like myself, those who have lived in social as a pariah based on no sound evidence and been labeled for life as a disease carrying genetic walking birth defect, like myself, those who have studied the history of biopsychiatry, the conflicts of interest, the fraud that pervades its every action, like myself, those that live and breathe this reality every day, and face discrimination and utter diabolical evil eugenic attitudes at the hands of the mindless reductionists. Our voice is never heard, the reason for this is, 99% have our cognitive function destroyed and are the living dead, warehoused in the community, living subjects of human experiments, and often heavily invested in psychiatry’s ideology, and it is an ideology, as compounded by our society’s and family’s blind faith in a ’science’ that does nothing but harm.
The climate in the early 21st century is right, for a resurgence in secular antipsychiatry, and I plan on being at the forefront. The emperor has no clothes, and with recovered mentally ill labeled underclass members like myself being high functioning back turners on psychiatry and thriving, combined with our internet presence, and efforts to have works published in mainstream books, and documentary films made.
Psychiatry is shooting itself in the foot more and more every year, as parents see their kids labeled defective and drugged into submission, as the DSM grows all encompassing, as the conflicts of interest with Big Pharma get more light shed one them, the corpse starts to smell more and more. Thoughtful, articulate psychiatric survivors, with enough cognitive function left intact after drug assault, are coming forward to show this crazy world, that the sector of society charged with handling delusion, suffers to its core from fundamental delusions of its own. Psychiatry and Big Pharma, partners in death. And as the graves fill up from preventable harm inflicted iatrogenically, it is just offensive that lazy science journalism like this dominates the headlines. The corporate paymasters of big media, have chosen their paradigm, only there are some willing to fight to the death to expose the atrocities of the pharmacaust we have survived.
The concordance for schizophrenia between identical twins is approximately 50%; so, by definition, the disease cannot be 100% genetic in nature.
I am 65. When I was a teenager I read RD Laing. As one of the comments pointed out his theories did involve human interactions as the root cause of illness rather than a biochemical cause. He was writing before we knew as much about the chemical structure of the brain. But his theories as to the crucial importance of “others” who supply confirmation, consistency of response and clear messaging that results in an unconscious confidence in a safe world, have held up. To that degree, families are responsible for our mental health. Laing postulated that there are other states that mimic schizophrenia, causing symptoms of confusion and a break with reality much like the disease but considered that “not all who would be psychotic, can be”, he wrote. My own experiences lead me to believe in the relatively new thinking that the brain, especially early on when it is developing at its most dynamic, is changed biochemically by our very early interactions and our responses are based on this structure. There is evidence that we can “unlearn” by teaching the brain to respond differently. We even know that smiling fools the brain into a neurological change, albeit temporary. It seems that all actual diseases of the brain have a specific organic cause, and each is different from the other. The virus theory holds great hope in terms of a cure for schizophrenia, and we know that abnormal plaque in the brain is the cause of Alzheimers and not the result of just aging. We think of ourselves as being light years ahead in the study of the brain, in the years to come we will probably look back on even this trajectory as being rudimentary. I sure would like to be around for that.
I have a severe case of schizophrenia (and have known people (mostly) with (much lesser) cases and find many of the posts here rediculous. First of all, medications ofter work very well most of the time. I am on 200 mg of Geodon and 6 mg of Ivega, both newer anti-psycotics. Before I started taking them, I had been homeless and without even one penny for many years and eating almost solely from dumpsters and sleeping on the ground even in the snow with a tent of piece of plastic in the winter in Pennsylvania. I was rediculously delusional. Just before I was finally helped by being arrested (yet again) and locked in a mental hospital (yet again) and given one of the new medicines in June, 1999, I was seeing people that weren’t there (and they looked perfectly real, not like in a dream) and rediculously delusional. For example, in a period of hours I went from thinking that I had to go on a suicide mission to kill the Serbian leader in Serbia (a missile would target us both) or my baby (no longer a baby in real life) relative would have to go and I would be tortured if caught, to thinking that I was already in Serbia all my life and should have realized it from all the evidence around me like the names of towns where I grew up (really, Indian names) and that the police arresting me were going to torture me and that my father was the head of a secret CIA type organization that was running the country (and very evil) and that my mother was a captured Soviet agent. Then, when they had me strapped to a cart, that the doctors and nurses were really martians and were about to stop torturing me with super effective alien torture technologies and were going to be able to keep me alive for hundres of years for more torture with advanced martian technology so I could be tortured longer. That was the most suffering I’ve ever been through for that long. You can’t imagine the terror. A non-paranoid person would be not even scared if it was actually happening to him comparted to how terrified I was. Then I thought Hitler was going to take over my body and that I had been fooled into thinking he lost World War Two all my life just so that I could be made an example of. I had other delusions then over a period of hours. For instance, I thought all patients in the Hostpital were really spies, as I thought all people in Wilkes-Barre were when I got there. Anyway, eventually I decided to sign some papers so that I could be drugged for some reason and I did and was drugged and the delusions almost went away in days. Anti-psychotic drugs can be very effective is the point. I think it was Prolixin, then.
I still have bouts of fear of the government sometimes and very great hatred for the government and its operatives to this day (based on actual experiences with them, not delusions). I also believe that I have come up with a number of super ideas, for instance, a design for a vastly better processor chip than anything in existance to day, like the Pentiums used today that it makes obsolete. You can judge for yourself wether my design is vastly better than Intel’s by checking out my website that describes it at http://howcomputers.com . You should think I might be right about some things because I graduated with high honors (3.7) from Penn State with a physics degree from Penn State in 1981, where I had a physics scholarchip, and went on to work on a PhD in physics a the University of Texas, Austin with a research assistantship for one semester, then got a secret clearance and worked for Northrop on a secret program for 3 year and at Texas Instruments for 3 months and was crazy the whole time and getting crazier all the time, but hid it.
Anyway, anti-psychotic drugs can be super effective. I have experienced it and seen it. I have also seen people get crazy by stopping taking anti-psychotics. A terror of my life now is that somehow, through poverty, I would not be able to get anti-pyschotic drugs. It would be a horror I can’t imagine.
Luckily, psychiatrists have seen it all many times and believe none of the nonsense in many of these comments. It must be boring to them because it’s the same stuff with person after person. Spiritualism, oh brother.
A key piece of information from the study, “53 mutations in the DNA sequence were detected. These mutations were found to occur in 15% of people with schizophrenia and 5% in those not affected by the disease.”
This is telling me that in the 85% other schizophrenics tested, no detectable mutations were found, of the types that were looked for. And so the vast majority of schizophrenics are not in the group with detectable mutations.
Obviously in those 85% of schizophrenics something else is going on. And genetics is clearly not yet giving us those answers, based on the investigation reported. If there are other possible genetic factors, they have not yet been observed.
I believe that schizophrenia is entirely due to faulty genes in many cases. Spontaneous/de novo mutations in offspring of older fathers whose sperm genes are defective causes the brain to develop abnormally. That is why schizophrenia and autism increase linearly after the father is 30. An older maternal grandfather is strong factor in fragile X, tuberous sclerosis and other X linked neurodevelopmental disorders.
I believe, in the case of schizophrenia no two people with these defects has the same genes exactly, except in familial schizophrenia. Toxins, starvation, and other insults are sometimes involved in damaging the developing brain. Not every offspring of an older father has genetic problems that are obvious.
If men and women knew about all(12) the studies on schizophrenia and paternal age they would do their best to plan their lives to father all babies in their 20s to early 30s and preferably at least by 35. Autism rates and schizophrenia rates for the non-familial versions would decrease and offspring would have less diabetes, less cancer and less angst.
Yes, I believe that schizophrenia is entirely genetic. Especially sporadic schizophrenia due to sperm DNA defects from older fathers. Familial schizophrenia is also entirely genetic. If men and women and teenagers knew of all the evidence of a paternal age effect which is linear in schizophrenia and autism they might plan to limit fathering babies to before the age of 35. Some men’s genes are closer to being unstable and producing a schizophrenic or autistic child at an earlier age than others. It would be wise to have public health warning about the risks found in many studies of schizophrenia, of autism, of diabetes, of cancers, de novo in the offspring of older (32+) fathers. Unfortunately average paternal age is extremely higher and climbing annually.
I hope they do find some method to the madness, pardon the wording. In addition to the devastating effects of the ill person and the family, our system of government has absolutely NO IDEA what to do or how to help people with these conditions. No one would let a cancer patient roam the street, but we all look the other way when downtown. A lot of that reason is due to the legal system as it is the illness. So, the scientists can kill two birds with one stone hopefully.
I read Rodger’s post with interest. I even went to his website and although I am not a computer scientist, I can see that he is an accomplished engineer, inventor and scientist. This being said, obviously there are some folks who toggle between mental illness and being perfectly sane (whatever that is!). All too often the public and the police just leave distressed folks to wander about unless they clearly pose a danger to themselves or others. Perhaps a special bracelet such as the MedicAlert would be a useful tool to ensure that they are given immediate and proper care. The bracelet could contain some implied consent for treatment and hospitalization without having to go through a “comittment” process. Also like Roger implies, the other part of the coin is not being able to afford medical care, which is the “insane” part of American society.
I am a native american woman diagnosed with mild schizophrenia.
I know based on my personal experience, that my disease is a combination
of genetics, and trauma.
A recent hypothesis has been that Toxoplasmosis (a common human parasite) may play a role in schizophrenia. Any thoughts?
JB
15%? What about the other 85%? Genetics explain a proclivity, nothing more.
Also, if interested in the cultural roots of psychiatric diagnoses, read Rethinking Psychiatry by Arthur Kleinman, MD, Ph.D; a brilliant psychiatrist from Harvard.
I would be very interested in knowing what % of people suffering from schizophrenia have suffered repeated trauma prior to the dignosis, but also feel it is something they feel unable to talk about. Last time I asked this in a discussion group, the response was 100%. genetics ? just think of the implications. A generation of people who have no power to resolve a disease.
Hi, I am a schizophrenic for 10 years. Currently, I am stable with medication, living comfortably in the community doing engineering. During my varsity days, I was psychotic and constantly seek avenues to express myself (in oder to be logical in the real world). You can read what I have written during those days here: http://www.geocities.com/lwlyhx
Presently, I don’t know of any relatives or family members with mental illness. I believe my case might not be entirely genetics but triggered environmental trauma. As pointed out, the majority of schizophrenics in the study above do not have observable mutations. I could belong to one of them.
I like to say that once I comply with taking psychotic medication consistently, I am basically well with minimal psychotic experiences. With my will to work hard to become a useful member in society, I work with my doctors, nurses, counsellors and new-found friends to overcome many obstacles and prejudices along the way to where I am now. I am also an medallist in the recent 2007 International Abilympics in Shizuoka, Japan. I also read and I hope scientists also study the many success stories of schizophrenics who have overcome their problems to be useful in society and the people around them. They are a constant inspiration to me.
You’re all one eyed, narrow focused biological determinists, and you’re the antichrist. Read ‘The Gene Illusion’ by Jay Joseph, there are hundreds of thousands of ‘professionals’ heavily invested and biased towards psychiatric diagnoses being 1) real diseases and 2) of organic origin. There is no disease, and there is no gene. You’ve all swallowed a 50 year PR spin from Big Pharma and the APA.
I don’t care if you say you have schizophrenia, you don’t. You’ve had an initial nervous breakdown, when young, and your body and brain have never been returned to organic neurology since then, thanks to guesswork pharmacology and neurological perterbation by design, resulting in further drug induced psychosis, or the initial one not healing and resolving, which it often does. In addition the psychosocial factors at play in the self fulfilling prophecy of the power of suggestion from psychiatry that you have a disease for life, the downward spiral begins. It’s sad you were living on the street and now you are in a chemical straight jacket. The doesn’t prove that you have an organic ‘brain disease’ that is rampantly causing symptoms at all, it could far easier be that initial trauma has never healed, and spending decades on the most filthy guesswork pharmacology hasn’t helped. It’s the stress, and the fear that play the biggest part in further symptoms. It’s not a disease, it was voted into existence, and you’re all completely wrong if you think its genetic.
If your father has a breakdown after taking some drugs, or having a life event, and ends up in front of a shrink, he’s that much more likely to take you to one to deal with any problems you have, and the gene illusion is created. There is no genetic component to specific classes of thought, and to think there is, is just pseudoscience and wishful thinking…
And the moron who said “He was writing before we knew as much about the chemical structure of the brain.” That’s BS, Laing died in 1989 for christ’s sake. And do we have a biological test to determine any dosage of any psychodrug? No. It’s a pathetic flimsy pseudoscience, and the only drugs in its arsenal, are blanket, all encompassing, cognitive function destroyers, that mask not only symptoms, but every color and hue of the human experience, ever thought and every human feeling. Hardly advanced science I would say pal.
Anyone who claims that they are schizophrenic, and that drugs saved their life would be challenged to scientifically explain by what mechanism they were saved. I would also ask you, in your initial psychosis, what life events preceded it, what illicit drug use, bad diet, heavy smoking, anything preceded it. And then, on what basis were you not diagnosed with brief reactive psychosis, what was the reason you had to be tagged with the most serious mental illness there is? What biological tests were given? None. Would you have gone to sleep and healed? Yes. Has your body and brain lived a day not under attack by guesswork chemistry toxic assault drugs since? No. And have you ever tapered off slowly to become psychotic again? And could it be thagt your initial psychosis never even healed because you were not afforded the opportunity to rest in your natural organic drug free state for a few weeks, instead you are pummeled for decades with toxic drugs by the shrinks, which create mood swings and psychosis further, and saddled with the extreme stress of living as a pariah in society that no longer trusts you, madness, beyond its initial appearance, is ALWAYS prolonged, and PERPETUATED by the TREATMENT AND LABELING ITSELF. Its a little known fact, and it can’t be proven wrong. Psychiatry is a faith based initiative brought to you by Eli Lilly.
WHO studies show, those whose initial psychosis is untreated by neuroleptics have far better long term outcomes than those who are placed in the chemical straight jacket for life and labeled a pariah based on a checklist.
[edited explicit content] psychiatry, [explicit] anyone who blindly trusts this ’science’ and stay the [explicit] away from it if you don’t want your body and mind raped, and your identity smeared and ruined, [explicit] you EUGENIC pieces of [explicit].
You’re [explicit] wrong. There is no gene, the fruitless search goes on… and it will forever. Because there is no disease. You can ‘get diagnosed’ with this disease if you take illegal drugs and flip out, you can get diagnosed with this disease if you act out in school, there is so many many and varied ways to get this diagnosis, and NONE OF THEM INCLUDE DEVELOPING A KNOWN LESION OR PROVEN KNOWN IMBALANCE OF ANY KIND.
Sure drugs can manipulate brain states. Pharma and illicit, we know this. We don’t understand [explicit] about what is going on in the psychotic mind, and its usually acute for only a few days out of an uneventful life of tens of thousands of days. The rationale, without a biological test, to place someone on society’s scrapheap and drug their minds for the rest of their lives, is simply evil and sick, and there is no rational reason for doing this.
I say again… what percentage, in the west, of initial psychoses are allowed simply to heal like bodily trauma, a cut on you leg for instance, with rest, love and understanding. Instead we give people a daily chemical lobotomy, like ripping open a healing cut every day for the rest of their lives, and expect the psychosis to go away? It is madness. And i’ve had enough of coming back to this page and reading your ignorant, biological determinist crap.
You sick, evil eugenic [explicit]. A pox on your house.
Any so called ’schizophrenic’ who says he is doing good on meds, and getting a degree, and gold medals etc… I don’t care. I ask you this…
Given that the drugs you take dull, numb and perturb organic neurological processes, deplete executive function and general cognitive ability…. and are designed to perterb… are you…. certain in any way,…. that if you were thinking and feeling and living with your organic neurology, that you wouldn’t be clearer, better, stronger, experiencing more acutely every human experience across the whole gamut of feelings? No you are not. You’re in a chemical straight jacket, few percent of you are moderately high functioning, that’s not to say you haven’t been taken for a ride and it is not to say your organic neurology has been scientifically proven to be defective in any way.
There is no known defect. The mechanics of the drug action do not relate to any proven biomechanics of delusion, the name antipsychotic is a misnomer, as is antidepressant, NO DRUG exists that can accurately manipulate specifcal neuronal activity known to be the depression or the delusion. So you’re swallowing toxic crap that acts globally on the neurology, and perterbs it GLOBALLY.
You have no idea how clear, fresh, lucid I am, now that I am off meds. There is no disease to medicate and its all a fraudulent load of rubbish.
You claim to be functioning… Will you ever not let shrinks and fear planted in you by them rob you of ever experiencing your true self? Or are you going to put on the chemical straight jacket every morning? If so, demand biomarkers, demand biological tests. NONE WILL OR CAN BE PROVIDED, of any repute anyway.
[explicit] pharmacaust, globally. And you fools think some phantom organic DEFECT is to blame for the homeless on the streets? No [explicit] way… it’s the way the initial psychosis is treated, the way the people
s identity is smeared needlessly by the label, and seriously [explicit] you all.
I’m an ‘untreated’ former ’schizophrenic’….in everything that ever happened the only objective fact that ever occured, was five days of psychosis, whose organic origin is out the window because it happened days after a death in the family…. All the crap that was forced into my head by the shrinks about my ‘disease’ whose ‘onset’ I had just ‘witnessed’ was false, all the chemical poisoning which occured in the years aftward, was not based on any objective science, and any pressure to not breed, was equally false and misguided.
The power of suggestion, the self fulfilling prophecy is never looked at by the studies… but if they did they would find the terrible truth. Untreated initial psychoses (read also unlabeled hence identity and self esteem not ruined) in the developing world without the application of the ideology of western biopsychiatry, do much better than those who get sick in the west. This proves that the treatments not only work, but harm the situation.
Initial psychoses, are always surrounded by psychosocial stressors, which proves its environmental. The foolish biopsychiatrist biological determinist reductionist morons would say that’s a ‘trigger’ for the mystery ‘gene’ to come into effect, all sounds a bit like magical thinking to me.
Because it is.
If your kid ever gets delusional. Tie them up, gag them, if needed. Listen to them, their narratives do make sense, all the spew that comes out their minds, is stuff that was put in there by experiences they’ve had. The confused state of ‘overwhelm’ is completely human, normal, can happen to ANYONE, not just some subset of MARKED, genetic underclass carriers of alleged ‘gene causation’ there is no gene, has never been found, it can happen to any of you tomorrow, regardless of whether your family has had contact with psychiatry. If it does happen to your kid, keep them away from a psychiatrist, which means keep them away from anybody but you.
It will pass. If you opt to involve psychiatry. The kid will get biologically raped with drugs, as state extralegal powers are applied to force psychiatry’s unproven ideologies on your child, your child will be sedated almost to extinction, sat in a chair, and in this sedated state, the reduced faculty state, will be indoctrinated into thinking they are helpless and have a disease, AND BAD GENES.
The child’s life will then gradually disintegrate, its brain will turn into a prune from the drugs, he will get fat, lose all self esteem as he is forced and condemned to wear the stamp of DEFECT on his forehead for the rest of his life. You will unnecessarily never see him engage as an equal in his community again, and he will likely die young, after a short, sickly, nasty, brutish life.
Never turn to psychiatry to help with overwhelmed minds. They have an ideology, of fear, biological determinism, learned helplessness, and utter destruction. Most importantly they offer no HOPE. And wield the power to destroy all hope forever with the stroke of one man’s pen. Even a rapist gets a jury of his peers, not so the condemned psychotic.
Never present, stay the [explicit] at home, and by god never ever let a shrink near you kid.
I’m going fine, and I don’t see why
you can’t see its easier to blame a gene that hasn’t even been found, than face up to the reality that psychiatry’s relentless faith in its unproven ideas, combined with its social and political power to destroy the psyche in one swoop, combined with misguided lifelong neurological drug perturbment is responsible for the lifelong mentally ill. It is manufactured, by the misguided way the system deals with initial distress and overwhelm. The scale of the truth, the scale of the IATROGENIC harm done, is so large, and so mind boggling, that its easier to blame organic neurology, even when 50 years of searching for a defect in every possible way, has come up with nil.
150 in a study is a [explicit] joke.
Schizophrenic’s reproduction rate is low as it often difficult to find a mate if youre one of the most hated pariah classes of humanity, if it was genetic, it would have been breeded out over millions of years. You suck.
I am a psychiatric survivor and a recovered “schizophrenic”. Schizophrenia is the label given to those whose trauma is not acknowledged, ignored or perhaps when your break down occurs you were unable to talk about it either through repression or fear. If your trauma is acknowledged then you will most likely be given the diagnosis along the lines of a post traumatic stress syndrome which results in a far more humane treatment and inevitably also more choice in the kind of treatment available. Being stigmatized and ostracized from society is less likely to occur if you are given any other kind of label than the schizophrenic label. As a schizophrenic in the western world you are one of the most stigmatized outcasts there is with the result that getting back into society as a valued member of society is almost impossible. Recovery has to be made against incredible odds and not many have the strength determination and shear will to overcome these odds.
Your outrage Bill is so understandable and I do so agree with you in what you say, however personally I have long ago realized that rage drives people away confirming them in their belief system that, in this case genetics and biochemistry is the right answer. I reserve my rage and outrage for those who can rage with me for afterwards to go out calmly and face those who not only are so sure that they have the answer but also the power to enforce their answers on many poor souls who wander lost around the corridors of the institutions and streets today. I argue with the same tools they use to present alternative theories and the theory that perhaps there are other ways of looking at schizophrenia and mental illness.
But most importantly I introduce tools to those who are suffering so as to enable them to re-empower themselves. I give staff and families who have realized that established psychiatry does not have all the answers and who want to change things, tools to help them help those who suffer and slowly but surely a new consciousness is entering into the world of psychiatry. I waste little time with those who are so determined to reject any thought of alternatives and believe that by building up an alternative, alongside established biological psychiatry, we reach far more people and we do not tire ourselves out or use all our energy fighting a headlong battle against biological psychiatry. You and many, many others realize that established psychiatry is not the answer but whereas before there were no alternative answers and very few ways of helping, things have changed and today there is.
Everyone who has even the remotest interest in psychiatry and especially those who wish to work within the psychiatric field should read Mad In America by Roger Whitaker. Marius Romme professor in Psychiatry has done pioneer work on voices and voice hearing one of the so called “major symptoms” of schizophrenia. His research and subsequent help has shown that 2/3rds of those who hear voices never become users of the psychiatric system and have no problems with being a voice hearer living normal lives whatever normal many be. Working with the remaining 1/3 who have problems with their voices, and who do become users of the system usually diagnosed as schizophrenics, is of tremendous help. It is the relationship to the voices that is the problem not the fact that they hear voices.
For those of you suffering locate your nearest hearing voices network and get support from others who know what it is like and come through it. There are many websites for example http://www.intervoiceonline.org who inform enlighten and give hope. Google recovery and schizophrenia.
But above all we must be open to the fact that there is not just one explanation and what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for someone else and forcing them to adhere to your explanation (and here I am referring mostly to the psychiatric system) opens the door to abuse on many levels.
Anyone who has a strong interest in this subject should at least look at the work of Julian Jaynes - The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
interesting response
HELLO PEOPLE!
MENTAL ILNESSES ARE NOT REAL!OPEN YOUR EYES! HOW MUCH DO SUPPOSED MEDICINES FOR MENTAL ILNESSE COST? A LOT! MENTAL ILLNESSES ARE THE WAY THAT PHYCIATRISTS MAKE THIER MONEY. DUR DUR DUR!