Lack of key protein reduces brain connections in schizophrenia

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i think this is really a great finding

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I think this is good news.

The SV2A gene is also the target for many epliepsy drugs (like anti-convulsants). I guess this may be a sign that sz may be neurological- it’s just what I think.

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Whatever this individual study leads to - and it may be something really revolutionary - to me this paragraph has the really important part. New tools we never had before will means new knowledge and understanding we would never have been able to obtain before.

“Having scans that can characterise the distribution of the approximately 100 trillion synapses in the living brain, and find differences in their distribution between people with and without schizophrenia, represents a significant advance in our ability to study schizophrenia.”

That is interesting, there are a couple of drugs in trial for schizophrenia that are anticonvulsants. Levetiracitam and Tiagabine. I believe both at doses much lower than used for epilepsy. I don’t know if they interact with that specific gene or protien. I think the current theory is they may reduce hippocampal hyperactivity, but it could be some other action, such as you mentioned.

They are trying them for cognition, and in people at clinical high risk/early psychosis.

I was on a low of Levetiracitam when I had my first psychotic break. So that wont work for me at least.

Was this part of a clinical trial? Or you were on it for something else.

Pardon me for being nosy.

I had a brain tumour excised a couple of years before I went into into psychosis, so was on it for that. They suspected I was still having seizures.

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