Schizophrenia and Pregnancy

I had never heard of there being a relationship between pregnancy and Schizophrenia. It is interesting that what happens in the womb could produce an illness that isn't seen until almost twenty years later. In the Temple University article it discusses the different infections or illnesses that the mother could be exposed to and that research shows a link between the mother contracting the illness and the child developing schizophrenia. Because most illnesses can not cross the placenta the researcher, Laura Ellman believed that the cause is more related to the mothers own biological reaction to the illness. The researcher, Ellman states that "increases in maternal levels of interleukin-8 (IL-8), one of the proinflammatory cytokines produced when fighting infection during pregnancy" seems to have the greatest impact to off spring that develop schizophrenia. However, she also states that because not all children of mothers who have increased IL-8 develop schizophrenia that there must also be some other predisposition that links the biological reaction to the illness and the ultimate development of schizophrenia. The book discusses that rates of Schizophrenia increased among children born to mothers that had Rubella, herpes, and other infections. Ellman discusses the flu which is much easier to contract than say Rubella or other infections so it does seem to make a stronger argument that there is another variable required in order to develop schizophrenia. I do think that it makes a very strong case for women who want to get pregnant to make sure that they have all of their immunizations and practice rigid infection control during their pregnancy.

Seasonal Affective Disorder- SAD

This is a very interesting disorder. It is something that obviously we do not have to worry about here in South Texas as we pretty much have sun year round. I do think that it is probably really great for those people that we call winter Texans because they are able to be out of the dreary cold for several months and get lots of sunny days to make them feel better. In the video the narrator talks about how the bodies biological system all works together to help prevent this and how the retina and the optic nerve all play a role into the part of the brain receiving the stimulus from the light. They also did a study and deprived individuals from sun for a number of days to show the impact of this on the different people. It seems that it can have a minor impact on everyone but that there is a huge difference in someone feeling a little "blue" and someone truly suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. The good news is that this can be treated rather easily. The obvious change would be that if at all possible the person could relocate to a sunny location. Since many of the people that are effected by this live in Alaska, Canada or in areas around the great lakes in the United States moving to sunny tropical areas such as southern California, Texas, or Florida would be a good solution. However because most people can not relocate they can treat SAD with a special light that they would sit in front of 30 minutes a day. The light has to be able to radiate the same amount of light as the person would receive if they were sitting outside with sun rays. Even though the eyes play a role this isn't about being able to "see" the light it is about the different biological processes that happen as a result of being exposed to the light.

decision making after brain injury

After someone experiences a traumatic brain injury we often worry about how their motor skills will be affected or their speech. So when they physically are able to get around and interact with others with out a problem many people think the damage is limited or non existent. In the article about traumatic brain injury (TBI) and financial skills it explains how important it is to asses the patients ability to be able to do things as simple as understanding a bank statement, counting change, paying bills or balancing their check book. The article discusses how crucial it is to have someone else be responsible for this until the patient with the TBI can be fully assessed and they know what skills they have retained and what they will need to relearn. In an experiment that they did with the TBI patients they found that after 6 months they were able to improve in the area of basic skills in relation to financial skills but in order to do more complex financial skills they still appeared to struggle. The suggestion was that someone else still have "proxy" over things such as financial investments and complex balancing of accounts. It is unclear if long term the patients are able to take this responsibility back. The article said that the area of the brain that is responsible for this also seems to relate to driving and regulation of medicine so these might be other areas that will require a caregiver to assist.