Understanding schizophrenia
Study shows differences in how men and women react to schizophrenia
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The distress of a schizophrenic can be unbearable. Right photo : Adrianna Mendrek |
Schizophrenia affects more than 1 percent of the population, causing profound personality change and loss of contact with reality. Although equal numbers of men and women suffer from the illness, their brains react differently. This is the conclusion recently reached by Adrianna Mendrek, researcher at the Department of Psychiatry at Université de Montréal and the Fernand-Seguin Research Centre.
When Mendrek’s schizophrenic subjects were shown a sad movie, the women reported feeling very distressed, while the men said they felt no heightened emotion. But the responses were contradicted by functional MRI testing that showed greater cerebral activation in the men. Mendrek wants to explore the possibility that this is a reversal of the differences seen in healthy male and female subjects.
Mendrek will present her findings at the Human Brain Mapping conference in Florence in June, and will soon embark on a four-year investigation of male and female brain function, with a grant of $180,000 from Quebec’s Fonds de la recherche en santé.
The movie A Beautiful Mind, the story of schizophrenic scientist and Nobel laureate John Nash, brought the illness out of hiding, but people are still uneasy about it. “There is a myth that schizophrenics are dangerous. Yes, they are,” Mendrek agrees, “but the danger is greater for those with the illness than for anyone else.” About 13 percent of schizophrenics commit suicide because of the dramatic alteration in thinking, reasoning, and relationships with others.
Negative signs of the illness include apathy, reclusiveness, and vacillation between love and hate. Positive signs include hallucinations, bizarre and impulsive behaviour, and delusions of persecution.
“Positive signs are more common in women, negative signs in men,” explains Mendrek. “We prescribe far more narcoleptics for women.” Are these women victims of sexism? “I believe they are,” she says, “and I don’t think I’m suffering from delusions of persecution.”
