Amazing MRI Scans Show Brains with Schizophrenia Trying To Self-Repair!
New hope emerges for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia after Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans show signs of brains afflicted with the mysterious mental illness trying to self-repair.
Composed of scientists from China and the United Kingdom, the team have stumbled upon evidence of the brain's ability to repair itself which, the researchers hope, could lead to a possible medical treatment in the future.
The study involved the use of MRI technology and a sophisticated method to distinguish the amount of brain tissue increase called 'covariance analysis' on 98 patients with schizophrenia and 83 patients without.
"Our results highlight that despite the severity of tissue damage, the brain of a patient with schizophrenia is constantly attempting to reorganize itself, possibly to rescue itself or limit the damage," said study co-author Dr. Lena Palaniyappan as quoted by Science Daily.
According to the researchers, the brains of the schizophrenic patients tend to have a reduced amount of gray matter leading to degenerative neurological functions. But their findings seem to prove that the process can be reversed.
If their findings could be sustained and expanded by future studies, there is a good chance of unveiling the mysteries of schizophrenia and coming up with treatments that utilize the natural self-repair mechanism of the brain.
"These findings are important not only because of their novelty and the rigor of the study, but because they point the way to the development of targeted treatments that potentially could better address some of the core pathology in schizophrenia," explains UK-based co-author Dr. Jeffrey Reiss, UPI reported.
As per Yahoo News report, around 3.5 million people in the United States are reportedly afflicted with schizophrenia characterized by symptoms that include the inability to determine real from the unreal. Schizophrenic patients exhibit delusions, chaotic thought patterns, and frequent hallucinations.
The study was recently published in the scientific journal Psychology Medicine with the title 'Dynamic cerebral reorganization in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: a MRI-derived cortical thickness study.'
