New functional MRI analysis may pave way for better schizophrenia treatment

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that causes hallucinations, delusions as well as disordered thinking and behavior. It can make a person behave abnormally because his or her perception of reality becomes distorted. Proper diagnosis and early treatment are essential to control symptoms and bring about a semblance of normal life. Without timely treatment symptoms of schizophrenia can become progressively worse with periods of remission in between. It can also lead to suicidal thoughts and behavior. It is a difficult condition to diagnose and this may lead to delay in treatment.

On a positive note, researchers have now developed tools to improve the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data which may pave the way for improving schizophrenia treatment. The image analysis method developed the researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in the US is called independent vector analysis (IVA) for common subspace extraction (CS). Through this method, they were able to categorise subgroups of functional MRI data based solely on brain activity, proving that there is a connection between brain activity and certain mental illnesses, said the study published in the journal NeuroImage. In particular, they were able to identify subgroups of schizophrenia patients using the functional MRI data.

Revolutionary new method for schizophrenia treatment

Previously, there was no clear way to group schizophrenia in patients based on brain imaging alone. But the methods developed by UMBC researchers showed that there is a significant connection between a patient’s brain activity and their diagnoses. According to researchers, the most exciting part is that they found out that the identified subgroups possess clinical significance by looking at their diagnostic symptoms. This encouraged them to put more effort into the study of subtypes of patients with schizophrenia using neuroimaging data.

Implications of this study

Researchers are hopeful that the results of this study can assist in diagnosis and treatment of patients with mental illnesses that can be difficult to identify. It can also show medical practitioners whether the current treatments have or have not been working based on image groupings. According to them, now that data-driven methods have gained popularity, a big challenge has been capturing the variability for each subject while simultaneously performing analysis on fMRI datasets from a large number of subjects. They can now perform this analysis effectively and can identify meaningful groupings of subjects.

What you can do to help a loved one with this condition

If you have a loved one who is suffering from schizophrenia, you may have to face challenging situations. You need to learn more about this condition so that you can identify the problem and offer better support. Patience and compassion are the keys to helping a person with this condition. You must also ensure that the patient stays away from alcohol, nicotine and drug use as it can make matters worse. Help the patient relax and encourage him or her to try yoga, meditation and other stress-reducing activities. Most important of all, you need to convince your loved one to visit a psychiatric for proper treatment.