Dr. Vivian Hook, professor with Skaggs School of Pharmacy and the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, has developed a test that can determine if a person is schizophrenic based on their nerve cells. The discovery has the potential for more effective treatment of the one percent of people in the United States that suffer from schizophrenia and may change the status of people that are schizophrenic that have been convicted of crimes.
Previous research has implicated three neurotransmitters in the development of schizophrenia. The neurotransmitters are dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. Schizophrenic people have higher levels of these neurotransmitters in their blood and have higher levels of the enzyme that produces the three neurotransmitters. No definite test could prove that a person was schizophrenic until now.
The scientists converted the skin cells of patients that had schizophrenia into functioning neurons using human induced pluripotent stem cells. The nerve cells functioned just like the brain cells in a person but the procedure allows examination at a chemical and physical level that was never before possible with animals or people. The discovery is thought to be a major step in producing new drugs that more effectively address the causes of schizophrenia.
No accurate count of the number of people that are in prison due to an act induced by schizophrenia exists but estimates indicate that over 1,000 murders are committed every year in the United States by schizophrenic people. The new test offers defense attorneys a means to force the court system to test if a person is truly schizophrenic or not. The discovery can protect a person that is mentally ill from being imprisoned as well as prevents the courts from letting a person that is guilty go free based on a paid expert’s diagnosis of schizophrenia.
