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Saturday, October 26, 2002In the first group, parts of the brain called temporal lobes were smaller. They also transmitted fewer chemicals in these areas, which are linked to language and memory. They had problems paying attention, organising their thoughts and expressing ideas in a logical and coherent way. They were mostly young males who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at an early age. It affected almost one in five of those with the disease involved in the study. In the second group, doctors discovered changes in the frontal-striatal region of the brain. They had less grey matter in the frontal lobes and had enlarged ventricles. This area affects cognition and motor function. Their temporal lobes were normal. Almost one in three of those with the disease who were involved in the study fitted into this category. More than half of the remaining patients had mild memory problems. Damage to their temporal lobes or frontal lobes was not as great as those included in the other two groups. It's not too surprising that what we call schizophrenia is really more than one physiological disorder. That's probably true about most disorders of the mind. In many ways the brain is the body's last frontier - the one organ we understand the least. The categories we have to describe its disorders are based only on the symptoms. As our understanding of the brain and its inner workings improve, we can expect our ability to treat and to accurately diagnose its disorders to improve, too. posted by Sydney on 10/26/2002 09:02:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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