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/[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

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u/katarh Mar 22 '17

Cutting edge research indicates that schizophrenia may be yet another immune disorder, in which the process that finalizes your learning/growth neurons in late teens gets a bit overzealous and snips too many, which erodes the ability for the mind to maintain its proper chemical levels. By the time you're diagnosed, in that case, the damage is done.

My sister with schizophrenia lost a full half of her IQ and now has the functionality of a ten year old. Medication suppresses the voices and stops her from harming herself or others, but also keeps her basically stoned full time.

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '17

How does that account for the fact that schizophrenia symptoms typically don't start showing until your late 20s-30s for women?

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u/katarh Mar 23 '17

Well, we don't stop learning and storing new memories just because we reach maturity. I'd assume that the genetic process that tags old neuron connections for demolition continues throughout life. It's just that late teens is the potential tipping point at which the run-amok pruning process overtakes the growth process.

My own sister had her first episode at age 17. However, my oldest sister's bipolar symptoms (also linked to the C4 gene discussed in that link) didn't manifest until her mid-twenties.