Brain Disorder

Brain Disorder
Keyword: brain deseases, brain disorder, gila, sakit otak, schizophrenia
History of the Scientific View on Schizophrenia as a Brain Disorder: It has been suspected for over a century that schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder (bipolar disorder) are disorders of the brain. In 1837, Dr. W.A.F. Browne, the best-known English psychiatrist of his generation, wrote: "Insanity, then, is inordinate or irregular, or impaired action of the mind, of the instincts, sentiments, intellectual, or perceptive powers, depending upon and produced by an organic change in the brain."

In that same year, Dr. Amariah Brigham, one of the founders of American psychiatry, also wrote that insanity "is now considered a physical disorder, a disease of the brain."
It would be 150 years, however, before these statements could be proven. Since the early 1980s, with the availability of brain imaging techniques and other developments in neuroscience, the evidence has become overwhelming that schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder are disorders of the brain.
Additional research done during the past decade has revealed that schizophrenia is caused by a combination of genetic or biological predisposition as well as other factors such as prepregnancy factors, pregnancy stress, other prenatal factors, social stress, family stress or environmental stressors during a person's life. Research has now shown that children's and teen's brains are very sensitive to stress (up to 5 to 10 times more sensitive than adult brains) and can be damaged by frequent or ongoing stress.
To learn more about the causes of schizophrenia, and how to prevent it - read these two documents: Causes of Schizophrenia, Prevention of Schizophrenia.
A brief summary of some of the evidence that proves this point follows.
Significant Loss of Brain Gray Matter: Individuals with schizophrenia, including those who have never been treated, have a reduced volume of gray matter in the brain, especially in the temporal and frontal lobes. Recently neuroscientists have detected gray matter loss of up to 25% (in some areas). The damage started in the parietal, or outer, regions of the brain but spread to the rest of the brain over a five year period. Patients with the worst brain tissue loss also had the worst symptoms, which included hallucinations, delusions, bizarre and psychotic thoughts, hearing voices, and depression.
Please note that while there is significant loss of brain gray matter, this is not a reason to lose all hope. In recent (September, 2004) group of presentations and discussion we had with Dr. Daniel Weinberger and other leading National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) schizophrenia researchers, we learned that there are reasons to believe that this gray matter loss may be reversable. Moreover, the NIMH is currently researching a drug that seems to have potential for reversing the cognitive decline that is caused by schizophrenia, and there are many drug companies also now researching in this area. It is anticipated that we will see some significant announcements related to these develpments in the next few years.