The Neurodevelopmental Hypothesis

I like how this is not narrowed down to just one possibility of the cause of schizophrenia.  If there was only one thing linked to schizophrenia, scientists and researchers would have found it.  Instead, they are finding something in common in most patients with schizophrenia.  According to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis schizophrenia begins with abnormalities in the prenatal and neonatal development of the nervous system, based on either genetics or other influences.  The genetic influence is a bit unclear and unreliable to deem the sole cause because there hasn’t been a specific gene linked to schizophrenia.  They know there is does warrant some genetic basis since the probability of family members, and especially monozygotic twins, having schizophrenia is higher than in other relationships.

What I found to be interesting, and again consistent with the way I think, is the neurodevelopmental hypothesis.  Problem is that I never really have science to back up my own thoughts.  Just inferences based on stuff I read here and there.  Doctors, websites, books, parents and mostly anyone that gets news of your pregnancy warn you to take good care of yourself, take your prenatal vitamins, eat right, don’t stress and enjoy your pregnancy.  I have only one child, and when I was pregnant with him I made sure to stay away from chemicals, not lift heavy things, stay away from smoke, and obviously to stay away from drugs and alcohol.  People do not even realize how incredibly crucial the development that is going on within you.  You don’t want to mess up that cycle of development in anyway.  In the picture below, the 8 week fetus looks extremely small and like it doesn't have  much going on, but it's one of the most important parts of development of the nervous system and brain. 

 

 

My first trimester, which is when most of the major development occurs, was so exhausting.  I was still small, not even a belly yet, and I was exhausted and felt the most pregnant than any other time in my pregnancy.  Probably even more than when I was 9 months.  I really do think that disruption of the development effects the brain and gives rise to abnormalities that could be the trigger for schizophrenia or other psychological disturbances.  I want to be cautious and NOT make it seem like anyone that gets sick when they are pregnant or is stressed will have a schizophrenic child.  A child is very versatile being.  It can withstand more than you think and even some slight problems shouldn’t be too worrisome.  I do think it is important to protect yourself as much as possible.  Eat well so they have the proper nutrition to develop.  Stay away from extremely harmful things, including excess stress.  Do not let a fever get too high because the cytokines that your body produces could cross the placenta and excessive cytokines could impair brain development.  Give your child a healthy shot at life but just simply trying to protect yourself.  Even if it reduces the chances of later developing schizophrenia by .000001 percent, it is worth it.

Awesome little song about Neurodevelopment:

 

How Antidepressants Work

This is something I seldom do, get into the whole chemical and scientific part of psychology.  Most of the time I am so blown away by something else that I pay little attention to what’s happening at the synapses of the brain.  This is interesting because you can’t just say A causes B.  It’s a lot more complex.  We usually use anti-depressants to increase the presence of serotonin or other neurotransmitters at the synapse.  Just because we need more serotonin at the synapse doesn’t mean that the brain is not producing enough of it.  People with depression actually produce normal amounts of serotonin, sometimes even more!  Studies have shown that decreasing serotonin does not make one feel depressed.   So there has to be more to it.

 

I think the theory about BDNF is pretty interesting.  By putting it plainly, I think that I would be depressed too if my hippocampus was smaller than normal.  The hippocampus is important for synaptic plasticity, learning, and proliferation of new neurons.  BDNF (Brain derived neurotrophic factor) helps by facilitating new learnin gthath builds new synapses and removes many old ones.  It seems that learning and reporudction of new cells in such an important area of the brain is important, if not essential.