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Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

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Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#21

Post by retrac »

ipnon wrote: post #10

"Living in an urban environment during childhood or as an adult has consistently been found to increase the risk of schizophrenia by a factor of two."[0] While city life is as complex of a confounding factor as anything, the fact that they found hunter-gatherers have practically no incidence of SZR is interesting. Is the modern megalopolis simply too intense of a stimulus for the minds of the sensitive to handle with…

I suspect, if this effect is real, it has more to do with social supports, the size of the social group, and maybe also metaphysical/religious beliefs and attitudes. People who have a worldview like "Demonic possession is real! And no big deal! Happpens to everyone from time to time!" skew non-urban. They may well interact, socially and emotionally speaking, with schizophrenic relatives and community members, in a better and healthier way, than we, in all our enlightenment, do. A case of minor thought disorder, for example, can probably either be aggravated or lessened based on the social response to it. The secular Westerner may not think schizophrenics are demon-possessed, but we sure tend to treat them like they are cursed.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#22

Post by conviencefee999 »

bitL wrote: post #6

Wasn't schizophrenia identified as basically off-by-one (multiple?) error of the deletion algorithm in the brain that is garbage collecting more (glial?) cells in a row than needed during teenage years? And "overclocking" glial cells by adding large quantities of Niacin/NAD+ partially alleviates those symptoms?

It's a neurological disorder and is more complicated than a one off bit, especially when it involved the entire CNS because it's associated with the brain. Many of these issues can't be cured as easy as flipping a bit.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#23

Post by teshigahara »

WhackyIdeas wrote: post #17

Fascinating. I self-diagnosed myself with schizophrenia once. A horrible 6 months locked in an alien world where all I could think about was time and space (at about a million miles a second). I would hear chatter in my head and was convinced I was overhearing random conversations people were having and was even certain of the locations they were having these conversations. The idea that we all shared one consciousne…

I have PTSD from extremely bad psychedelic trips and this comment made me cringe (my PTSD must be getting better because I think at one point it would have given me a panic attack). I don't think I could have handled 6 months of that.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#24

Post by zwkrt »

bitL wrote: post #6

Wasn't schizophrenia identified as basically off-by-one (multiple?) error of the deletion algorithm in the brain that is garbage collecting more (glial?) cells in a row than needed during teenage years? And "overclocking" glial cells by adding large quantities of Niacin/NAD+ partially alleviates those symptoms?

At the very least there seem to be 10s of causes of schizophrenia and just as many different manifestations of it. Similar to cancer or depression in that regard.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#25

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrr2 »

berberous wrote: post #18
Dig1t wrote: post #13

> It is therefore possible that the behavioral changes induced by Toxoplasma in humans, including suicidality, are a part of its adaptations to increase the probability that our ancestors were eaten by lions or leopards What the what

I am skeptical that most suicidal people, who may idealize or even follow through on shooting or hanging themselves, would willingly let themselves be eaten by a lion. Fight or flight adrenaline in the face of big cats feels like a likely effective cure for suicidal ideation…

> Normally, a protozoan is not very likely to end up in a cat’s gut because rodents instinctively fear cats. In Toxoplasma-infected rodents, however, the fear of cats disappears (Vyas et al., 2007). The mere smell of a cat normally makes rodents flee, but rodents infected with Toxoplasma experience the smell of cat as sexually attractive (Berdoy et al., 2000, House et al., 2011). This makes them seek out cats, making Toxoplasma-infected rodents more likely to end up as cat food. These rodents still avoid other predators as before (Berdoy et al., 2000, House et al., 2011). The reversal of this innate fear reaction helps the protozoan reach its definitive host, a cat, and to propagate its genes to future generations.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#26

Post by jamiek88 »

nine_k wrote: post #15
ipnon wrote: post #10

"Living in an urban environment during childhood or as an adult has consistently been found to increase the risk of schizophrenia by a factor of two."[0] While city life is as complex of a confounding factor as anything, the fact that they found hunter-gatherers have practically no incidence of SZR is interesting. Is the modern megalopolis simply too intense of a stimulus for the minds of the sensitive to handle with…

Does schizophrenia occur more often in people with certain genetic traits? Does the majority of people with such traits live in urban environments, e.g. in highly urbanized countries? (No idea; just a hypothesis to test.)

More likely to be diagnosed in a city too I would imagine.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#27

Post by WhackyIdeas »

teshigahara wrote: post #23
WhackyIdeas wrote: post #17

Fascinating. I self-diagnosed myself with schizophrenia once. A horrible 6 months locked in an alien world where all I could think about was time and space (at about a million miles a second). I would hear chatter in my head and was convinced I was overhearing random conversations people were having and was even certain of the locations they were having these conversations. The idea that we all shared one consciousne…

I have PTSD from extremely bad psychedelic trips and this comment made me cringe (my PTSD must be getting better because I think at one point it would have given me a panic attack). I don't think I could have handled 6 months of that.

It begun for me after smoking weed one night - in a flash I was outside my body with an extreme panic attack and the sudden belief that I was inside essentially a game. This first panic attack lasted around an hour or two. It was horrendous. Your PTSD is something you can manage, I have it too. It gets better and weaker as the years go on. For myself, this all happened 18 years ago but it made me a stronger person.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#28

Post by IAmGraydon »

WhackyIdeas wrote: post #17

Fascinating. I self-diagnosed myself with schizophrenia once. A horrible 6 months locked in an alien world where all I could think about was time and space (at about a million miles a second). I would hear chatter in my head and was convinced I was overhearing random conversations people were having and was even certain of the locations they were having these conversations. The idea that we all shared one consciousne…

What you are describing sounds like a protracted psychotic break. Schizophrenia doesn’t just come one day and disappear 6 months later.

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#29

Post by gavinray »

teshigahara wrote: post #23
WhackyIdeas wrote: post #17

Fascinating. I self-diagnosed myself with schizophrenia once. A horrible 6 months locked in an alien world where all I could think about was time and space (at about a million miles a second). I would hear chatter in my head and was convinced I was overhearing random conversations people were having and was even certain of the locations they were having these conversations. The idea that we all shared one consciousne…

I have PTSD from extremely bad psychedelic trips and this comment made me cringe (my PTSD must be getting better because I think at one point it would have given me a panic attack). I don't think I could have handled 6 months of that.

You're not the only one, how many of us out there?

Re: Schizophrenia: The new etiological synthesis

#30

Post by WhackyIdeas »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #28
WhackyIdeas wrote: post #17

Fascinating. I self-diagnosed myself with schizophrenia once. A horrible 6 months locked in an alien world where all I could think about was time and space (at about a million miles a second). I would hear chatter in my head and was convinced I was overhearing random conversations people were having and was even certain of the locations they were having these conversations. The idea that we all shared one consciousne…

What you are describing sounds like a protracted psychotic break. Schizophrenia doesn’t just come one day and disappear 6 months later.

Maybe you are right. I watched a Netflix doc on schizophrenia a few days ago, and it was ‘check, check, check’ for nearly every symptom. I suppose there’s a lot of overlap with the more extreme mental health issues.
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