Schizophrenia

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, most psychiatrists have long insisted, is to treat its symptoms when they first surface with anti-psychotic drugs, which help dissolve hallucinations and quiet imaginary voices.

Delaying treatment, some researchers say, may damage the brain.

But a report appearing next month in one of the field's premier journals suggests that when some people first develop psychosis they can function without medication - or with far less than is typically prescribed - as well as they can with the drugs.

And the long-term advantage of treating first psychotic episodes with anti-psychotics, the report found, was not clear.

The analysis, based on a review of six studies carried out between 1959 and 2003, exposes deep divisions in the field that are rarely discussed in public.

In the last two decades, psychiatrists have been treating people with anti- psychotic drugs earlier and more aggressively than ever before, even testing the medications to prevent psychosis in high-risk adolescents.

The studies demonstrate that the drugs are the most effective way to stabilize people suffering a psychosis.

Millions of people rely on them, and the new report is not likely to alter the way psychiatrists practice anytime soon.

But some doctors suspect that the wholesale push to early drug treatment has gone overboard and may be harming patients who could manage with significantly less medication, perhaps because they have mild forms of the disorder.

About three million Americans suffer f...

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b.” Latino liberal Democrats and their illegal alien lobby suffer from this condition because they know illegal immigration is wrong, yet they are out of power and need a wedge issue to get it back.

Case in point: In a recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Mexican Consul Teodoro Maus gave Sen.

Sam Zamarripa and Rep.

Pedro Marin a bye on illegal immigration issues.

This bye comes from a man that has dedicated his life to the plight of illegal immigrants.

Maus has led the licensing push and amnesty for illegal aliens for years.

He has also demanded and received an apology from a local radio talk show host who had suggested militarizing the border between the U.S.

and Mexico, attacked a city ordinance in Smyrna requiring that all commercial signs be written in English,and called for a Hispanic boycott of American businesses that refuse to offer services in Spanish.

Yet he said in the recent article that “Zamarripa and Marin had done the best they could under difficult circumstances.” He says that Zamarripa’s chance to kill the bill is lost and he can only “soften the bill.” That Marin has been “pushed to the sidelines” because of the politics of his district!

This is why when in the same article Maus, who does not know me personally, says that I am “an enemy of the Latino community,” I have to pause and expose the true motivation for this inflammatory comment.

Maus and his friends are not defending some moral ground.

Don’t be fooled by their...

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, autism, learning problems, Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, epilepsy, autism, Tourette's syndrome, brain injuries and depression- which affect the lives of millions of people.

InitiativeA promising new initiative for communicating scientific knowledge to a broad audience and stimulating an interest in the neurosciences is the Cross-University Brain Behaviour Initiative (CUBBI).

CUBBI is a cross-faculty, multidisciplinary collaboration aimed at promoting research in the cognitive and affective neurosciences.

CUBBI will bring together expertise from various fields such as genetics, basic neuroscience, phenotypes, cognitive psychology and neuro-imaging (PET, MRI, fMRI) in order to improve understanding and treatment.

These methods will be applied to areas that are relevant to the developing world and South Africa, and the initial focus will be on trauma and resilience.

For more information, contact the Mental Health Information Centre, Tel: 021 938 9229 or email Winnie@sun.ac.za.

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