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Scientists shocked to find antibiotics alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia

natasa778

Senior Member
Messages
1,774
Scientists shocked to find antibiotics alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia

A cheap antibiotic normally prescribed to teenagers for acne is to be tested as a treatment to alleviate the symptoms of psychosis in patients with schizophrenia, in a trial that could advance scientific understanding of the causes of mental illness.

The National Institute for Health Research is funding a 1.9m trial of minocycline, which will begin recruiting patients in the UK next month. The research follows case reports from Japan in which the drug was prescribed to patients with schizophrenia who had infections and led to dramatic improvements in their psychotic symptoms.

The chance observation caused researchers to test the drug in patients with schizophrenia around the world. Trials in Israel, Pakistan and Brazil have shown significant improvement in patients treated with the drug.

Scientists believe that schizophrenia and other mental illnesses including depression and Alzheimer's disease may result from inflammatory processes in the brain. Minocycline has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects which they believe could account for the positive findings.

A cheap antibiotic normally prescribed to teenagers for acne is to be tested as a treatment to alleviate the symptoms of psychosis in patients with schizophrenia, in a trial that could advance scientific understanding of the causes of mental illness.

The National Institute for Health Research is funding a 1.9m trial of minocycline, which will begin recruiting patients in the UK next month. The research follows case reports from Japan in which the drug was prescribed to patients with schizophrenia who had infections and led to dramatic improvements in their psychotic symptoms.

The chance observation caused researchers to test the drug in patients with schizophrenia around the world. Trials in Israel, Pakistan and Brazil have shown significant improvement in patients treated with the drug.

Scientists believe that schizophrenia and other mental illnesses including depression and Alzheimer's disease may result from inflammatory processes in the brain. Minocycline has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects which they believe could account for the positive findings.

The UK trial aims to recruit 175 patients recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, half of whom will be randomly allocated to take minocycline with their standard anti-psychotic treatment while the remainder take a placebo.

Brain scans will be carried out at the start and end of the 12 month trial to compare loss of grey matter an effect of schizophrenia in the two groups. Tests will also measure inflammatory markers in the blood.

Professor Sir Robin Murray, chair of the Schizophrenia Commission said: "Infection or inflammation might be involved in a minority of people (! :rolleyes: ) with acute psychosis and minocycline might counter this. In depression inflammatory markers go up and in Alzheimer's too."
...



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...eviate-symptoms-of-schizophrenia-7469121.html
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
Thanks for posting this, Natasa. It's time that these psychological fraudsters accept that science will take their place. I just posted another article about depression and evolution where it seems, that depression is connected to infection and survival. The world is bigger than most psychologists acknowledge.
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
Minocycline is a NMDA antagonist, protecting neurons against exitotoxicity. So the effect seen might not have anything to do with infection.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/11390507/

Did anyone say so?

Scientists believe that schizophrenia and other mental illnesses including depression and Alzheimer's disease may result from inflammatory processes in the brain. Minocycline has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects which they believe could account for the positive findings.
 

adreno

PR activist
Messages
4,841
For me it seemed that you implicated this, but never mind.

Murray mentions infection, but mostly I wanted to note the neuroprotective action of minocycline, as the drug being an antibiotic might lead some people to conclude that infection is necessarily involved. This would also imply that drugs with similar MOA (e.g. Memantine, NAC) might be effective, perhaps without some of the detrimental effects of antibiotics.
 

anciendaze

Senior Member
Messages
1,841
Another possibility: The specific infection may not be the problem at all. There are biochemical similarities between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases. If the symptoms arise from misdirected immune response, reducing immune provocation could ease symptoms. Thus, a lead to a cause present in a tiny minority of patients could lead to a wider search for triggers of psychosis. There is considerable anecdotal material on admissions to mental hospitals correlating with seasonal changes, as with allergies.
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
Murray mentions infection, but mostly I wanted to note the neuroprotective action of minocycline, as the drug being an antibiotic might lead some people to conclude that infection is necessarily involved. This would also imply that drugs with similar MOA (e.g. Memantine, NAC) might be effective, perhaps without some of the detrimental effects of antibiotics.

Yes, I agree and I hope that more studies look into this direction. Even if CFS/ME is not solved as a whole in the very near future we would benefit from understanding how certain symptoms are caused and how certain body systems interact.
 

Enid

Senior Member
Messages
3,309
Location
UK
Don't know why they should be so "shocked" to find this - real science continues to erode the psycho games.