HKA Mental Health Activities: Aug 05

Guest Speaker Presentation

Schizohrenia - Incidence and Influences

Professor Vaughan Carr from NISAD (Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders). NI SAD is one of the Projects that you, as HKA members, support financially through the Association.

Professor Carr is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Newcastle, Scientific Director of NI SAD, and Director of the Centre for MH Studies at James Fletcher University, Newcastle. The Research Institute is NSW based, and is recognised for its high standards of professionalism and research.

Some points made by Professor Carr:

Statistics

  • 0.05% population have Schizophrenia
  • 0.05% population have Bipolar disorder
  • For every 1 person with Schizophrenia, there are 14 people with anxiety disorders
  • It costs $21,000 per person per year to treat someone with Schizophrenia (+ an additional $13,000 for the DSP). Schizophrenia uses 20% of the total NSW mental health budget.
  • It costs $800 per person per year to treat someone with an anxiety disorder
  • Schizophrenia is classed as a neuro-developmental disorder with symptoms such as distortions of reality (hallucinations etc), negative symptoms and cognitive deficits - particularly working memory
  • 80% of Schizophrenia is heritable
  • 10-20% of population may have genes for Schizophrenia

The three main effects of Schizophrenia on the patient are:

  • Reality distortion
  • Negative symptoms
  • Cognitive impairments

Current theories about the possible causes of Schizophrenia

There is no one single cause of schizophrenia

Neuro-devetopmental causes:

As the embryo is developing in utero, there may be problems with the migration of cells in the neural tube causing cells to make connections which are not usually made

There may be faults with the myelin sheaths around the nerves

The 'pruning' of neural pathways that normally happens in the brain during adolescence may go too far

Schizophrenia may show up more in adolescence due to the increase in sex hormones and this "pruning"

Environmental influences:

Nutrition in pregnancy ­

There is twice the likelihood of an individual developing Schizophrenia if their mother is under-nourished when pregnant, as proven by studies done in China & Holland

Pregnant mothers need vitamin D, folic acid and omega 3

Migration:

Children and grandchildren of people who have immigrated seem to be affected more than those who have not.

Urbanicity:

Incidence of Schizophrenia Is higher in urban areas than rural areas

Marijuana use during early adolescence (amphetamines may trigger schizophrenia, but are not seen as causal, unlike Marijuana)

Cognitive neuroscience:

MRI's of the brain show a thinning of the cerebra! cortex beginning from the occipital lobe to the frontal lobe which occurs during the first 5-10 yrs of schizophrenia. This is only apparent as an average rather than in individual scans.

The lack of fibres which connect nerve cells to each other leads to decline in functioning.