Unforunately Schitzophrenia is a degenerative brain disease with no cure. No amount of medication can change the way brain gradually becomes deformed because of the disease. Seeing the comparitive brains scans between a healthy brain and the schiztophrenic brain was an eye-opener for me.

Unfortunately, only the rich can afford the kind of consistent long term in-house care those stricken with the disease deserve. Otherwise, they are given their meds and left to their own devices or institutionalized with little or no chance for "normalcy".

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Of course, you respond to the "shooty people" and not have a thing to say about the article. Maybe Mel can lend you some of that empathy she was suggesting for Dagorian?

Mental illness is a sad thing all round and but for the grace of god or the luck of Budha or whatever you believe in, all it takes is a small imbalance in chemicals to mess things up :( </font>

[ 07-01-2003, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Well that's not necessarily true. The scans and autopsies of brains of people with schizophrenia are seriously confounded by the medication that is taken, both prescribed and self-medicated which affects the brain enormously (also when institutionalisation was more common, ECT). For example the enlarged ventricles that used to be thought of as a cause (or consequence) of having schizophrenia we now know can't be explained as that because they could be due to medication. Same with cerebral atrophy that is often seen. Studies of pre-medication brains often don't show the same effects, and complicating it still, brains of people who have been on medication sometimes don't show abnormalities either. It is not always a 'degenerative' disease either - about 30% of people have one schizophrenic episode and never have another.

Well that's not necessarily true. The scans and autopsies of brains of people with schizophrenia are seriously confounded by the medication that is taken, both prescribed and self-medicated which affects the brain enormously (also when institutionalisation was more common, ECT). For example the enlarged ventricles that used to be thought of as a cause (or consequence) of having schizophrenia we now know can't be explained as that because they could be due to medication. Same with cerebral atrophy that is often seen. Studies of pre-medication brains often don't show the same effects, and complicating it still, brains of people who have been on medication sometimes don't show abnormalities either. It is not always a 'degenerative' disease either - about 30% of people have one schizophrenic episode and never have another. </font>[/QUOTE]Thanks, thats interesting to know! I'm not the mental health professional in the family, my Fiance is, so my knowledge base is lacking things like a masters degree in Psycology!

I don't feel the need to reply in every thread. Other than 'that's sad' there is little that can be said. I deal with enough mental illness on a daily basis at work as it is.

a pity. schizophrenia is a very sneaky disease of the mind, i guess. at one point people thought i was a schizophrenic, because i had a habit of saying what first came to mind, and it often came out completely wrong(either grammar or content), so i immidiately corrected the sentence to what it was supposed to be, often disrupting the counter-sentence of the person i was talking to. this amused my friends and the people around me to no end(the malicious bastards).

To take a different tack, I wonder how long it'll be before the first lawsuit against the producers of Highlander hits the courts? And let's not forget the makers of the swords used.