Brain disorders including addiction, depression, and schizophrenia afflict 1 billion people and are often incurable with current therapies

Researchers have identified a master regulatory molecule that is responsible for triggering the remodeling of neuronal connections that is critical for learning. Malfunctioning of the connection-remodeling machinery that they identified may also play a role in mental retardation, schizophrenia, and drug addiction.

Schizophrenia is a debilitating psychiatric illness. Its cause is currently poorly understood, and there is no known cure. In a new study published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, Akiko Watanabe and colleagues report the identification of a gene linked to the condition.

The inconsistent expressions related to schizophrenia are newly structured in a recent study by researchers at the Universitas Pompeau Fabra (Barcelona), and Oxford University. Marco Loh, Edmund Rolls and Gustavo Deco have created a dynamical system framework to discuss the disorder, publishing on November 9, 2007 in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have developed a new means of extracting and interpreting data from the human genome that is more powerful and more economical than methods currently employed.

A tendency to extract messages from meaningless noise could be an early sign of schizophrenia, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers.

Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue.

Acutely ill, hospitalized patients with schizophrenia showed significant improvement in symptoms after taking INVEGA™ (paliperidone) Extended-Release Tablets as compared to SEROQUEL® (quetiapine) and placebo. Symptom improvement was observed with INVEGA as early as five days into therapy and continued through the end of the two-week study period, according to preliminary data presented today at the 20th Annual U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in Orlando, Florida .

Do gene variants that convey risk for schizophrenia affect apparently healthy individuals" Although these genes are present in every human, individuals may have different versions of these genes, called alleles.

A new study reports important evidence for a potential new treatment approach for those diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is considered one of the most devastating of the major psychiatric disorders, which has three distinct facets, often referred to as “positive” (hallucinations, delusions), “negative” (blunted emotions, reduced capacity for pleasure), and “cognitive” (impairments in attention, memory, and problem-solving) symptoms.

New Australian research has shown antidepressants could prevent the onset of schizophrenia if they are prescribed before the patient's first psychotic episode.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have developed a mouse model for schizophrenia in which a mutated gene linked to schizophrenia can be turned on or off at will.