One thing that holds me back from having my case dismissed by the Court is the concern that schizophrenia is not curable. We’re talking about 40 years since 1979 being in this situation, but now there is hope. Researchers have found the potential for “targeted treatment that reduces symptoms of psychosis” according to a study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry by researchers from McLean Hospital and other institutions. From the hospital press release:
“The study was led by Deborah L. Levy, PhD, director of the Psychology Research Laboratory at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School. The research provides a proof-of-principle demonstration of symptom relief by targeting a specific genotype and links an individual structural mutation to the pathophysiology of psychosis and treatment response.
“In the last decade, significant progress has been made in identifying genetic factors underlying schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric disorders. Hundreds if not thousands of common genetic variants are collective risk factors for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. However, the impact of each individual variant is both very small and indecisive in determining risk.
“Rare genetic variants, on the other hand, can have large effects on risk. These variants are thus assumed to impact core pathophysiological processes.
“Large-effect mutations are individually rare, with even the most recurrent impacting relatively few individuals. Some are so rare that they are private mutations, known to occur in only one or a few families. This is the case for the mutation described by Levy and her colleagues.”
From the SARDAA press release:
“According to SARDAA’s Chief Executive Officer Linda Stalters, MSN, APRN (retired), the organization is honoring Dr. Levy for her recent work demonstrating that treatment can be targeted in individuals who experience psychosis who have a specific structural genetic mutation. “This example of groundbreaking research could pave the way for other personalized treatments for people with life-altering neuropsychiatric brain illnesses,” Stalters said.
“What Dr. Levy has done is profoundly important,” Stalters stated. “We know that schizophrenia isn’t one illness, and we also know that genetic mutations are likely to impact brain levels of neurotransmitters and to alter brain structure. We hope that the work that Dr. Levy and her colleagues have done will encourage the discovery of other mutations that may be medically actionable and studies of the therapeutic effectiveness of other targeted treatments.”
This is not a cure for schizophrenia, but I asked Linda Stalters what this means. She emailed me:
“It is only a discovery for one mutation that only affects a small number of people. It is a hopeful discovery in that if we find one there is hope to find more. It would be a great opportunity for potential personalized treatment and prevent specific brain diseases.”
Dr. Levy will be receiving the 2019 Valiant Researcher Award from SARDAA on Nov. 4, 2019 at the Westin New York at Times Square.