Brains Of Schizophrenics Can Self-Heal And Reverse Their Illness

The brains of schizophrenia patients have an incredible trait---they can repair themselves, reveal an international team of researchers.

With the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the study shows that the brains have the ability to take preventive measures against the illness, and hence can repair themselves.

MRI scans and a special method called "covariance analysis," made the team examine 98 patients with schizophrenia and 83 without. It helped them to identify differences in brain tissues. The study was the first time that the method helped to show the ability of the brain to pull back the effects of the illness.

"Even the state-of-art frontline treatments aim merely for a reduction rather than a reversal of the cognitive and functional deficits caused by the illness," said  Lena Palaniyappan of the London Health Sciences Centre and co-author of the study. "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."

The new knowledge has enabled researchers to concentrate on a more rigorous scanning of patients' brains who had early schizophrenia. Researchers tried to grasp a better picture of the repair process inside 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 pathologies in schizophrenia," said Jeffrey Reiss, also of the LHSC and co-author of the study. "Brain plasticity and the development of related therapies would contribute to a new optimism in an illness that was 100 years ago described as premature dementia for its seemingly progressive deterioration."

The research thus showed positive results, with the insight into the brain's ability to repair itself.

"We are excited that Dr. Palaniyappan will be continuing this important clinical research here in London with his international colleagues," said Paul Links of the LHSC, who was not involved in the study.

The findings were published in the May 26 issue of the journal Psychological Medicine.