Schizophrenia Studies 1

66% of patients that did not respond to typical antipsychotics responded to a 12 month course of Clozapine

• Did a meta analysis of studies 
• Atypical drugs were only moderately better for type 2 symptoms 
• Reviewed four studies involving atypical drugs
• In 2 the drugs were slightly more effective
• In 1 they were the same 
• In 1 they were slightly worse

• The catatonic subtype is very rare and could be caused by the anti psychotics that are taken 
• It isn't a true subtype of schizophrenia and should be dropped as such

• Some people stay in the active phase for many years
• In these cases type one symptoms in early years are replaced by type 2 symptoms later in life

• First degree relatives of schizophrenics are 18x more likely to develop schizophrenia 
• The national average is 1% likelihood

The more genetically similar you are to a schizophrenic, the more likely you are to be schizophrenic yourself

• Person with:
• Schizophrenic parent: 17%
• Schizophrenic sibling: 9%
• Schizophrenic sibling and parent: 12.9%
• Schizophrenic parents: 46%

• Concordance rates for schizophrenia between:
• DZ twins: 14%
• MZ twins: 46%

Of 47 mothers with schizophrenia who's children were adopted within days of birth by typical mothers, the instance of schizophrenia was 16%

High rates of schizophrenia were found in people who's biological parents had it but who had been adopted by psychologically healthy parents

• 155 adopted children with schizophrenic mothers were compared to a matched group with no family history of schizophrenia 
• 10% in group 1 were schizophrenic
• 1% in group 2 were schizophrenic

• Studied DNA of schizophrenics 
• Affected seemed to have an affected gene PPP3CC- associated with the production of an enzyme 
• GMO mice deprived of this gene displayed schizophrenic symptoms

• PET scans were carried out on the brains of schizophrenics 
• A higher density of dopamine activity was recorded in schizophrenic brains than the control group

• Serotonin plays a bigger part in schizophrenia
• Serotonin is a master neurotransmitter that controls other neurochemicals such as dopamine 
• New drugs such as clozapine that are more effective in reducing symptoms affect serotonin rather than dopamine

• Parents communicate contradictory messages to their children 
• They say one thing but their tone or gestures or tone communicate the opposite 
• One message is conveyed on the verbal level but another is conveyed on the non verbal level

Schizophrenia development is augmented when someone is in a negative emotional climate

Expressed emotion is a stress factor possibly causing or contributing to the development of schizophrenia