Schizophrenia: A Neurodevelopmental or a Neurodegenerative Disorder
Dolores Malaspina
J Clin Psychiatry 2006;67(8):e07
© Copyright 2019 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.
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The functional decline and
onset of psychosis that individuals with schizophrenia experience suggests that
schizophrenia has a neurodegenerational origin. However, current research
favors a neurodevelopmental model in which individuals with schizophrenia
develop abnormalities during brain development.
The abnormality that leads to psychosis and deterioration remains latent as the
brain develops but emerges concurrently with the brain’s normal development or
after an outside event that leads to changes in brain function. Prenatal
adversity may underlie the neurodevelopmental process and neurodegeneration of
schizophrenia. Because psychosis may be a clinically identifiable marker of an
underlying neuropathologic process associated with deterioration, the best way
to treat the illness is to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis, aim for
full remission of psychosis, and combine medication with other therapies.
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