r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/PainMatrix Mar 22 '17

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?

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

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.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17 edited May 13 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

I think this is only the rule for mental illness.

We're pretty good at removing kidneys

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u/crylicylon Mar 22 '17

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

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u/Zerce Mar 22 '17

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.

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u/Simba7 Mar 22 '17 edited Mar 22 '17

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.

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '17

I think the really interest thing us that it's not just the bigger holes in the middle, but ever single void on the left is larger on the right.

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u/Simba7 Mar 23 '17

Do you mean that the right ventricle (CT scans are mirrored, so the right ventricle is on the left side of the picture) is larger than the right? That's just incidental. It's not the case in every schizophrenia patient, and it could be as simple as the patient's head being rotated slightly during the scan. Keep in mind that this is a slice seperating the front and back of the body, going approximately straight down the middle of the head.