Treating the Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Dr. Daniel Wolf of University of Pennsylvania discusses how neuroimaging technology is changing the way we identify and treat the so-called negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• narsad
• brain
• research
• schizophrenia
• neuroimaging
• mental health
• mental illness
• treatments
• technology
• University of Pennsylvania

[ethentey]

how can we treat this negative symptom??i feel really bad now,wasting my life away,if this goes on i will nv fall in love in this lifetime,and its really sad,i m socially withdrawn,apathetic..i need help??is there any current treatment which can treat schizophrenia negative symptom??i m currently on abilify 7.5mg,its doing shit on my negative symptom...clozapine or latuda or maybe stimulants??anyone??

[valsharai]

@888archangel Negative symptoms are an effect of glutamate accumulating within certain regions of the brain when it lacks the appropriate amount of glycine, which is a co-agonist, with which to bind at receptor sites. Glutamate and Glycine are battle buddies. Glutamate and Dopamine are battle buddies. Old anti-psychotics have focused too much on dopamine and neglected to adequately consider glutamate & glycine. The key treatments address BALANCE -- not too much of anything AND not too little!

[paulwritesfights]

having this is a horrible thing, i have all the negative symptoms and let me tell u id rather be hallucinating with a chance of suicide then wasting away the only life i will have, all alone, with the only thing i love being the creative imagination apparently this disease has given me. thx for post

[888archangel]

@dhwdhw1 This can all be attributed to the state of chronic stress induced by psychosis. Any early accounts are of little importance in the mechanism of illness as the basic treatment of mentally ill was, in most cases unethical.

[888archangel]

Dr. Daniel, why don't you explain how anti-psychotics are partially responsible for the negative symptoms, which block the nucleus accumbens dopamine pathway. That normal people taking anti-psychotics experience the same negative symptoms.

[dhwdhw1]

@SODTHEEU Thank you for your comment. Some antipsychotic side effects can indeed mimic negative symptoms, but negative symptoms were described as core features of schizophrenia long before antipsychotics were invented, and stopping antipsychotics carries a high risk of psychotic relapse. Antipsychotics affect brain structure in complex ways; newer antipsychotics can actually increase the size of certain brain regions (eg, striatum). Clearly, we do need more knowledge and better treatments.

[SCUBONZIES]

THIS GUY IS GAY

[SODTHEEU]

At least half of the people with strong negative symptoms could be helped by taking them off the antipsychotics which cause the negative symptoms. It has been shown that developing countries with no access to these tablets have people with only one episode of psychosis only with much greater frequency than countries in which access to these tablets tends to make psychosis recur.

The tablets also caused brain shrinkage in monkeys in a study, this surely cannot help the negative symptoms

[missburn]

You seem kind.

It would be very helpful finding a treatment for the negative symptoms.

[concretewhole]

keep up the good work