Schizophrenia and the Mind–Body Connection

Abstract

This chapter describes one of the most debilitating and severe psychiatric conditions—schizophrenia. This disease affects approximately 1 % of the people on the planet and, as such, it fulfils the criteria of a major pandemic. It is characterized by diverse and disconcerting symptoms in those who suffer from this disease, such as psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, depression, disrupted thinking and cognitive deficits. But the situation may be even more complex than that. Many researchers have started to adopt the viewpoint that schizophrenia may actually be a single term for a diverse set of different psychiatric disorders. In addition, the diagnosis of schizophrenia is not straightforward and there is still not a complete understanding of the underlying molecular causes. This chapter describes the current clinical needs exemplified by the mediocre success rates of diagnosing and treating individuals with schizophrenia. Inaccurate diagnoses and inadequate treatment will not only hurt the patients but it will also have a negative impact on the patients’ families, society in general, and on cost management of the healthcare services. This chapter also provides details on recent advances in screening patient blood samples for identification of biomarkers as the first step towards improving patient outcomes. Most importantly, the finding that many schizophrenia patients also show signs of perturbed metabolic and inflammatory systems may offer a unique solution for improved treatment approaches, involving co-administration of anti-diabetic or anti-inflammatory compounds along with the traditional antipsychotic medications to kerb these symptoms. At the same time, such an approach may also help to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with the disease itself.