14 DAY TRIAL // According to the conclusions of a new scientific study, it would appear that one of the probable causes for schizophrenia is the progressive development of abnormalities, as the human brain gets older.
The research team is however quick to point out right off the bat that this correlation only holds true in some individuals, and that this is not the root cause of the neural disorder for all sufferers.
What the work suggests is that the disorder may in fact be caused by brain abnormalities that add to previous defects to create an environment which favors the development of symptoms associated with schizophrenia. The correlation works incrementally, the experts add.
Genetic deficiencies are one of the reasons for which the brain could start to develop in abnormal patterns. However, they are not the only causes. Sometimes, a series of miscommunication between nerve cells called neurons can lead to the same outcome.
The new investigation was focused on studying a selection of individuals who were found to carry a deletion of a small section from chromosome 22, researchers announce in a paper published in the latest issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Previous investigations have established that this deletion plays a role in generating heart and facial defects. The condition is called 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, or velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS).
While only 1 percent of the general population goes on to develop schizophrenia, about one third of all patients suffering from VCFS suffer from the disorder, among other neural problems, experts say.
This statistic hints at a link between the two afflictions, says researchers Wendy Kates, PhD, who is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Upstate Medical University Center for Psychiatric Neuroimaging.
In the new study, she and her group used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to tease out a connection. She determined that progressive deficits piling up in the amount of gray matter volume participants' temporal cortices exhibited could be used as indicators for psychosis.
“Our findings suggest that in VCFS, brain changes during mid-adolescence, particularly in the temporal lobe, predict early signs of psychosis,” Kates explains, quoted by PsychCentral.
“This suggests that it may be possible, eventually, to develop a screening tool that would identify those VCFS-affected youth who are at the highest risk for schizophrenia,” she concludes.
However, “these studies cannot define the specific changes at the cellular level and thus, we are limited in our capacity to make precise predictions based on these MRI data,” Biological Psychiatry Editor Dr. John Krystal comments.