From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Fri Aug 06 1999 - 12:47:57 MDT
Finally, on a rather scarey note, if I
>continue to reinforce the entertainment of random subconscious
>thoughts, could this lead to schizophrenia?
>Robert
Schizophrenia is a disease of neural connectivity caused by multiple factors
that affect brain development.schizophrenia probably occurs as a consequence
of multiple "hits," which include some combination of inherited genetic
factors and external, nongenetic factors that affect the regulation and
expression of genes governing brain function or that injure the brain
directly. Some people may have a genetic predisposition that requires a
convergence of additional factors to produce the expression of the disorder.
This convergence results in abnormalities in brain development and
maturation, a process that is ongoing during the first two decades of life.
(6) The abnormalities are typically not focal but, rather, involve
distributed neural circuits and neurotransmitter systems. When the
connectivity and communication within neural circuitry are disrupted,
patients have a variety of symptoms and impairments in cognition. Behind
this diversity, however, is a final common pathway that defines the illness.
For schizophrenia, it is misregulation of information processing in the
brain. Ongoing etiologic studies must focus on finding the origins of
abnormalities that lie beneath the clinical surface.
The symptoms and signs of schizophrenia are very diverse, and they encompass
the entire range of human mental activity. They include abnormalities in
perception (hallucinations), inferential thinking (delusions), language
(disorganized speech), social and motor behavior (disorganized behavior and
abnormal or stereotyped movements), and initiation of goal-directed activity
(avolition), as well as impoverishment of speech and mental creativity
(alogia), blunting of emotional expression (flattened affect), and loss of
the ability to experience pleasure (anhedonia). These symptoms and signs
occur in patterns that may not overlap; one patient may have hallucinations
and affective flattening, whereas another has disorganized speech and
avolition. The diversity and nonoverlapping pattern of symptoms and signs
suggest a more basic and unifying problem: abnormalities in neural circuits
and fundamental cognitive mechanisms.
Genetically, schizophrenia resembles other complex illnesses, such as
diabetes mellitus, in that it is nonmendelian, probably polygenic, and
probably multifactorial. Recent linkage, association, and candidate-gene
studies suggest multiple susceptibility loci, including some on chromosomes
6, 8, and 22.
. Other possible nongenetic factors contributing to increased risk include
the effects of poor nutrition on fetal and childhood brain development,
exposure to toxins that damage neurons or affect neurotransmitter systems
(e.g., alcohol, amphetamines, and retinoids), and exposure to radiation that
might induce mutations.
*from The New England Journal of Medicine
Therefore, the point is, although not every case is genetic (alternately
being contaminated), I would recognize that this is less a state of mind and
more a disease. Further more, "random subconscious
thoughts reinforced for entertainment" I can substitute with diction as
~creativity.
Nanogirl
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