Science News about Schizophrenia

Studies Offer New Information About Treatment Choices for Schizophrenia — Phase 2 Results

Science Update • April 01, 2006

A national clinical trial comparing clozapine with other new-generation antipsychotic medications for the treatment of chronic schizophrenia has shown that people who switched to clozapine from their first medication because it failed to manage symptoms adequately were twice as likely to continue treatment as patients who switched to other antipsychotic medications.

Web Forum Launched for Schizophrenia Researchers

Press Release • October 28, 2005

Researchers trying to crack one of medicine's most perplexing unsolved mysteries can now keep abreast of late-breaking developments via the Schizophrenia Research Forum, a website launched this month with funding from the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Teens with Deletion Syndrome Confirm Gene’s Role in Psychosis

Press Release • October 23, 2005

A study in youth who are missing part of a chromosome is further implicating a suspect gene in schizophrenia.

NIMH Study To Guide Treatment Choices for Schizophrenia (Phase 1 Results)

Press Release • September 19, 2005

A large study funded by NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides, for the first time, detailed information comparing the effectiveness and side effects of five medications — both new and older medications — that are currently used to treat people with schizophrenia.

Brain Scans Reveal How Gene May Boost Schizophrenia Risk

Press Release • April 21, 2005

Clues about how a suspect version of a gene may slightly increase risk for schizophrenia are emerging from a brain imaging study by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Stress Impairs Thinking Via Mania-Linked Enzyme

Press Release • October 29, 2004

An errant enzyme linked to bipolar disorder, in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, impairs cognition under stress, an animal study shows.

Schizophrenia Gene Variant Linked to Risk Traits

Press Release • August 11, 2004

Researchers at the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have identified a relationship between a small section of one gene, the brain chemical messenger glutamate, and a collection of traits known to be associated with schizophrenia.

Research to Test Treatment of Cognitive Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Press Release • May 06, 2004

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a four-year, $9 million contract to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and five other academic medical centers to create a network of Treatment Units for Research on Neurocognition and Schizophrenia (TURNS).

Mental Illness Genetics Among Science’s Top “Breakthroughs“ for 2003

Press Release • December 22, 2003

Research on the genetics of mental illness, most of it NIMH-funded and much of it in the Institute’s own laboratories, was named the #2 scientific "breakthrough of the year" by Science magazine in its December l9, 2003, issue.

New Program Will Pursue Schizophrenia Gene Leads

Press Release • September 12, 2003

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced a new program expanding genetics research on schizophrenia in its own Bethesda, Maryland, laboratories.

NIMH Awards $22.6 Million for Center for Collaborative Research on Mental Disorders

Press Release • July 01, 2003

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has funded a five-year, $22.6 million Center for Collaborative Genetic Studies on Mental Disorders at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Gene Enhances Prefrontal Function at a Price

Press Release • May 07, 2003

Studies of a gene that affects how efficiently the brain’s frontal lobes process information are revealing some untidy consequences of a tiny variation in its molecular structure and how it may increase susceptibility to schizophrenia.

Scans Link 2 Key Pieces of Schizophrenia Puzzle

Press Release • January 28, 2002

Using functional brain imaging, National Institute of Mental Health scientists for the first time have linked two key, but until now unconnected, brain abnormalities in schizophrenia.