Schizophrenia Affects Your Body, Not Just Your Brain

Andy

Andy

Retired committee member
Wow, it's almost like the brain is just another part of the body, potentially affected by other parts of the body.
Summary: Researchers say schizophrenia should not be considered to be just a disorder of the mind, as schizophrenia can also impact other organs. A new study reveals people with schizophrenia often have an over active immune system and other physical disorders.

Source: The Conversation.

Schizophrenia is considered a disorder of the mind, influencing the way a person thinks, feels and behaves. But our latest research shows that organs, other than the brain, also change at the onset of the disease.

Scientists have known for a long time that people with schizophrenia have much higher rates of physical illness compared with the general population, and this contributes to startlingly high rates of premature death. People with the disorder die 15 to 20 years earlier than the average person.

This poor physical health has often been seen as a secondary effect of illness. Antipsychotic drugs, for example, are associated with an increased risk of weight gain and type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle factors have been thought to play a part, too. A person with debilitating mental symptoms is more likely to forgo exercise and have a poor diet.

However, in recent years, scientists have observed that people who have recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and who aren’t on any medication yet show evidence of physiological changes, such as an overactive immune system. Could it be that schizophrenia is in fact a body-wide disorder?
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http://neurosciencenews.com/schizophrenia-body-brain-9036/
 
However, in recent years, scientists have observed that people who have recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and who aren’t on any medication yet show evidence of physiological changes, such as an overactive immune system. Could it be that schizophrenia is in fact a body-wide disorder?
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Among the assorted hit-and-miss diagnoses my mother had over many years, schizophrenia was one of them. I think it very possible there could be an underlying physical abnormality that leads to brain malfunction, thereby manifesting as a mental illness. Whether such a physical problem would be confined only to the brain ... who knows? From my second hand experience of it, the very last people to ask would be psychiatrists.
 
Barry said:
Among the assorted hit-and-miss diagnoses my mother had over many years, schizophrenia was one of them. I think it very possible there could be an underlying physical abnormality that leads to brain malfunction, thereby manifesting as a mental illness. Whether such a physical problem would be confined only to the brain ... who knows? From my second hand experience of it, the very last people to ask would be psychiatrists.
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The possibility that any psychological condition is caused by physical issues is not something that psychiatrists are going to be keen on, as it will start to reduce their potential victim pool.
 
Andy said:
The possibility that any psychological condition is caused by physical issues is not something that psychiatrists are going to be keen on, as it will start to reduce their potential victim pool.
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And yet even back in the '60s my parents apparently understood that my mother's problems potentially had some physical root cause. "Chemical imbalance" was a term I vaguely recall. I have very mixed feelings about psychiatry. On the one hand I know for sure there are some immensely dedicated and compassionate psychiatrists and psychologists, who do indeed help people a lot. And yet even before my ME-awareness, based on other experiences, I've also felt psychiatry a bit akin to voodoo and black magic, practiced by people having much more faith than knowledge. Very mixed feelings.
 
Andy said:
The sarcasm isn't apparent? If not, please take my post as being a sarcastic shot at the psychs.
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The sarcasm was noted and appreciated by me!

I think this paper was really interesting @Andy, thanks for posting about it. You can find the full thing here: http://sci-hub.tw/10.1038/s41380-018-0058-9. Here is the interesting bit:
…after allowing for overlapping studies, data were extracted for a total sample size of 1343 patients and 1643 controls. First episode psychosis is associated with elevated blood cytokine levels, specifically IL-1β, sIL2R, IL-6, TNFα, TGFβ, CRP, and elevated total lymphocyte counts (effect size range: 0.61–1.62)... The summary effect size of immune alterations in FEP is 1.19 (95% CI: 0.82–1.56). … Antipsychotic naive first episode psychosis is associated with elevated blood cytokine levels, specifically IL-1β, sIL2R, IL-6, and TNFα (effect size: 1.00–1.86). The overall effect size for magnitude of immune alterations in antipsychotic naive FEP is 1.46 (95% CI: 0.74–2.18)
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So in other words, people diagnosed after their first episode of psychosis, who'd had no antipsychotics, had significantly elevated levels of four cytokines: IL-1β, sIL2R, IL-6, and TNFα.

I've been wondering for a while if the brain is a sort of "canary" for some sorts of systemic disturbances, the first to show external signs of disease.

But what's the bet all this will end up getting explained away as an effect of having the stress of psychosis, rather than an important potential causal factor?
 
Woolie said:
So in other words, people diagnosed after their first episode of psychosis, who'd had no antipsychotics, had significantly elevated levels of four cytokines: IL-1β, sIL2R, IL-6, and TNFα.
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So immune system activation and, unsurprisingly enough, a quick Google reveals most, if not all, of those cytokines are involved in inflammation. My prediction is that, given enough time, we will find most, if not all, "mental illnesses" are physical illnesses that just affect the brain in certain ways more than others - treat the physical and the mental will improve..
 
The new thing in depression is that it's caused by inflammation, not serotonin imbalance! I read a fascinating article in The Times a couple of weeks ago. Too brain dead to find it. Cambridge psychiatrist has written a book on it.
 
Squeezy said:
The new thing in depression is that it's caused by inflammation, not serotonin imbalance! I read a fascinating article in The Times a couple of weeks ago. Too brain dead to find it. Cambridge psychiatrist has written a book on it.
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Yea, Ed Bullmore. Amazing how many people are shoehorning it into a psychosocial account of depression, though. Its all that negative thinking that causes the immune dysfunction.
 
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