With
the ever looming threat of a greater amount of mental illness due to
the chemicals in our environment, Northwestern University is working on a
new revolutionary treatment. Using chemicals that increase estrogen
production in the brain, without adding the risks of effects on the
body, they have found new ways to affect mental illnesses such as
depression and schizophrenia.
The mechanism of action is activating receptors on the branches of
brain cells, called dendrites, making them become more numerous and
better connected. The dendritic spines may be affected in development
by endocrine disrupting chemicals because they have these hormone
receptors. The drug company, Pfizer, is actively developing drugs that
use these receptors, increasing the amount of communication between
brain cells.
The key to an issue called, “the gamma binding problem,” in
schizophrenia may be in this new drug therapy. The gamma binding
problem refers to sensory processing and decision-making resting in a
low performance state in mental illness. The “gamma” in that term
refers to high frequency brainwaves which are abundant and coherent in
the mentally stable. In meditation studies, the gamma brainwave pattern is increased,
and may help to fitfully allay schizophrenic illness – though further
study in this regard should take place. The reason is the exchange of
nitric oxide in the brain is also malfunctioning in schizophrenia, and,
due to nitric oxide release during meditation, people with psychotic
illness should be careful about their practice. Though meditation has
its utility, exercise could be favored as a complimentary approach to
the treatment of severe mental illnesses.
The medication developed by Northwestern University will be an easier
and reliable game changer for those with mental illness in the future.
Medicine compliance is the safest way to thwart psychotic problems in
those who suffer.
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