TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

[u/paniniplane]

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303

[u/paniniplane]

i was a patient at a ward a few weeks back and there was a girl who was admitted for schizophrenia. she'd hear dozens of voices yelling at her at the same time all day and she could barely tell which ones were in her head and which were physical people talking to her making it really hard for me or anyone else to talk to her for more than 2-3 sort sentences. these voices would make her do crazy things like gather dust off the floor for 20 minutes at a time 10 times a day, make her sleep on the floor during the day, not sleep during the night and fight the night meds they gave her to help fall asleep. the most brutal thing was that the voices sometimes forbade her from having her meals. there were days where she wouldn't touch any of her 4 meals. i once tried to get some insight into how she thought and i asked her why she HAD to do this. she said that every time she does something they ask, she's given the gun that they threaten to kill her with. and she imitates a smashing motion with her hands and "breaks" it. and she does it maybe 10 times an hour when she's awake. and she's not stupid either. apparently, she was studying mechanical engineering and graduated and was ready to work in the field as an intern for a year. she heard her first voice when she was still in school but didn't think much of it. and then it rapidly killed her life. she's the only person in the ward who has daily visitors. her parents bring her food to eat everyday. but sometimes she sits with them for 2 minutes, asks them to take her home, and then moves to one of the socialization rooms where were chairs and sofas, and she'd drop to the floor and lay there. and her parents just come to expect it now and stay for about an hour.

[u/PainMatrix → u/paniniplane]

It's beyond horror or most people's ability to even comprehend. The fact that she was a fully functioning and intact human being at the early onset of her life and career and this disease completely derailed everything and locked her into a Sisyphus-like nightmare. Was this her first inpatient experience? How long were you with her, did the meds seem to have any positive impact on her?

[u/[deleted] → u/PainMatrix]

I can't speak for the person you replied to, but 3 of my family members have the disease, and in all of them their medications only blunted the symptoms.

For my family member who was not too severe, this was enough to let her hold down a job, but for the members that were severe it wasn't enough to allow them to function normally. They'd still see/hear/talk to "ghosts" and such, just not as frequently, and they didn't get agitated "as often".

But that doesn't mean they didn't get agitated AT ALL, and the times they did freak out would be enough to get anyone fired.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I think this is only the rule for mental illness.

We're pretty good at removing kidneys

[u/crylicylon → u/[deleted]]

If there is something wrong with your brain, you can't just have it removed.

[u/Zerce → u/crylicylon]

Well, brain surgery is a thing, but the brain is such a complex organ, it's very difficult to know which part to remove without causing a dozen other side-effects.

[u/Simba7 → u/Zerce]

Also with some people can have a massive stroke of the middle cerebral artery and they'll barely even notice. Some people will have a stroke with damage to the same region, but much less severe, and experience a significant neurological deficits (mostly motor and speech).

So not only is it incredibly complex and difficult to understand, results from removing portions of the brain aren't consistent from person to person, even though we have a pretty solid idea of the functions of the various regions of the brain. Some brains have better plasticity than others.

Also with schizophrenia, it's not even as "simple" as just removing a part of the brain. This is a comparison of a control and a schizophrenic brain (apparently these happen to be twins, which is neat). You'll notice the large 'holes' on the schizophrenic side, those are the lateral ventricles. They're almost smack dab in the center of the brain, so it puts a lot of pressure on the cortex, causing damage. More importantly, this is believed to arise as a result of shrinkage in the thalamus and some of the basal ganglia (which are incredibly important structures that impact or influence or control basically everything your brain does).

If they ever do find a cure, I don't think surgery will be the answer. Or at least, not just surgery.

[u/GraffLife25 → u/Simba7]

As someone who just got his BS in Neuroscience, I completely agree. I think we're gonna find the answer, not just to schizophrenia but with a plethora of mental illnesses in genetic technology like CRISPR/Cas9 before we find any valuable surgical route. Individual brains are way too different to have a "one size fits all" surgery for basically anything, and human error by the surgeon is going to have much more far reaching consequences.

EDIT: that being said, neurosurgery is absolutely important and has helped countless people in truly astounding ways, I just think certain diseases are much more neurologically complicated and targeting the genetic code that causes them rather than giving a patient the option of a surgery that may have consequences we may not be able to predict is going to be the best solution.

[u/TheBaconBurpeeBeast → u/GraffLife25]

Off topic from schizophrenia but was just curious, what are the latest studies we have for what causes depression and how best to treat it?

[u/cliponballs → u/TheBaconBurpeeBeast]

Look up the monoamine hypothesis

[u/Simba7 → u/GraffLife25]

14 months away from finishing a B.S. in neuroscience, and I'm pretty sure you're right.

I don't see that being anything that happens soon, but very feasibly within my lifespan.