Science News About Schizophrenia

In a comprehensive postmortem genetic analysis of the caudate nucleus in the brain, NIMH-supported researchers identified many genes associated with schizophrenia risk, including a gene that regulates the flow of the chemical messenger dopamine.

Researchers used computational methods to automatically detect abnormalities in spoken language that could be used to predict symptoms of psychotic disorders including schizophrenia.

A new study shows the use of a clinical decision support system to prompt the use of shared decision-making tools, such as handouts, may result in positive impacts on long-term cardiovascular health in patients with serious mental illness.

A new study conducted by researchers at NIMH suggests that differences in the expression of gene transcripts – readouts copied from DNA that help maintain and build our cells – may hold the key to understanding how mental disorders with shared genetic risk factors result in different patterns of onset, symptoms, course of illness, and treatment responses.

The Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET), an NIMH initiative aimed at determining how to best provide treatment for individuals experiencing symptoms of early psychosis, is increasing access to resources for researchers, providers, and families through a growing network of research hubs and a new website.

NIMH has joined with other NIH Institutes in launching an new Accelerating Medicines Partnership focused on advancing the development of better ways to identify and treat those at clinical high risk for psychosis.

Mice with an impaired version of one the few genes definitively linked to schizophrenia showed abnormalities in working memory, mimicking those commonly seen in schizophrenia patients.

Gene expression regulators work together to raise an individual’s risk of developing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia-like gene expression changes modeled in human neurons matched changes found in patients’ brains.

NIMH awarded six research grants for studies to develop a learning health care system for the treatment of early psychosis.

Mental health research center directors emerged from a recent meeting with a renewed commitment to help each other achieve their common mission – to transform care of children, adolescents and adults with severe psychiatric disorders.

Researchers have shown that a type of magnetic resonance imaging — called neuromelanin-sensitive MRI (NM-MRI) — is a potential biomarker for psychosis. NM-MRI signal was found to be a marker of dopamine function in people with schizophrenia and an indicator of the severity of psychotic symptoms in people with this mental illness.

A new study in rodents has demonstrated, for the first time, that the brain’s cerebellum plays a role in controlling reward and social preference behavior—findings that shed light on the brain circuits critical to the affective and social dysfunction seen across multiple psychiatric disorders.