One of the most misunderstood mental disorders is schizophrenia. Scientists have been doing extensive research to determine the cause of the disease and be able to treat this gruesome illness that gradually strips someone of his/her identity.
On a usual occurrence, schizophrenia kills neuronal cell bodies, reducing its volume in the patient's brain. However, the new research sheds some hope for schizophrenic patients that the brain can possibly recuperate by itself as shown by the increase of brain tissue in some parts.
Making use of "covariance analysis," the new research examined the brains of 98 schizophrenic patients and 83 normal participants through MRI scans. Interestingly, the team of researchers discovered that there is a slight increase of the brain tissue in particular areas, contrary to the recognized effect of schizophrenia that does otherwise (via NH Voice).
Apparently, there is an increase of tissue in other brain regions because the brain tries to fight the severity of schizophrenia. The patient's brain itself attempts to restructure damages and block potential threats to its normal state.
"These findings are important not only because of their novelty and the rigor of the study, but because they point the way to the development of targeted treatments that potentially could better address some of the core pathology in schizophrenia," Dr. Jeffrey Reiss, a member of the research team, said as reported by NH Voice.
At present, schizophrenic patients are cured of the mental disease through a combination of antipsychotic medicine and therapy. They alleviate the impact of schizophrenia which helps to normalize the patient's condition, but even with a combination of both, they still fail to completely overcome it (via NH Voice).
As per National Institute of Mental Health, there is a 1.1 percent of the U.S. adult population with a 12-month prevalence of schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients experience thought process deficits including delusions and hallucinations. Others think everyone is reading their minds, controlling their thoughts and planning to hurt them.
The impacts of schizophrenia are hard to manage because there is still no one-size-fits-all solution to cure someone from the mental disorder. According to Helpguide.org, the love and support of the patient's family would really help. The first thing to do is to accept that a loved one has the disease and pay attention to his/her needs without losing track of oneself.
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