Brains of schizophrenics may repair themselves over time

[Psychiatrist] Lena Palaniyappan…and other mental health professionals have noticed is that, unlike those with degenerative neurological disorders[,]…sometimes schizophrenia patients eventually start to improve.

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So far, most research has focused on the neurological decline associated with schizophrenia—typically involving a loss of brain tissue. Palaniyappan and his colleagues wondered whether there might be “something happening in the brain [that] helps them come to a state of stability.”

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Sure enough, the researchers noted that, while patients who were less than two years removed from their diagnosis had significantly thinner [brain] tissue than healthy controls, those patients who’d had the disease for longer tended to show less deviation in some brain regions…

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Palaniyappan cautioned, however, that he and his colleagues were simply looking at a snapshot of schizophrenia patients and correlating cortical thickness with duration of illness.

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Although the effect sizes from individual study sites are small…collectively, the data tell a consistent story. “Almost all of them agree that almost all the brain regions are thinner in the cases than in the controls,” [Jessica Turner] says.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Do Schizophrenic Brains Repair Themselves?