More proof that the human body is amazing: a new study found that brains affected by schizophrenia have the ability to limit, or even reverse, the damage caused by the illness.
Scientists found that brains affected by the disorder can repair the grey matter volume from schizophrenia, and eventually grow to be more like the brains of people without the disease. This new finding defies the medical belief that schizophrenia permanently damages brain tissue in its initial stages.
According to scientists, the grey matter volume in the brains of schizophrenic patients decreases and they become more 'normal' the longer that they have the condition. In the study, the scientists used a technique called 'covariance analysis' to study schizophrenic brains in more detail. They found that damaged brains behaved differently than usual in the early onset of the disease.
This information hints at an attempt at self-healing, and possibly one that could be enhanced with the right medical treatments. While it's only a small study, if the findings can be replicated and built upon, it could signal a serious shift in the way scientists and doctors think about the illness, and help them come up with new ways to develop treatments for more than 21 million sufferers worldwide.
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