Staff Writer Lavanya Mahendrakumar discusses recent schizophrenia research from King’s College London (KCL).
Researchers, led by Professor Oliver Howes, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at KCL have found a link between serotonin and certain symptoms of schizophrenia.
This offers a new potential opportunity for treatment.
Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental health disorder, causing significant impairments in the perception of reality. Major symptoms include hallucinations, delusions and disorganised thinking. Treatment for schizophrenia is mainly through medication. However, current medication developed for schizophrenia does not improve a class of symptoms called negative symptoms.
Negative symptoms describe a reduction or absence of typical behaviour. These include impaired communication and social functioning, limited emotional expression and a loss of motivation and pleasure. Negative symptoms may be of greater importance to people with schizophrenia in their daily life – they often appear before other symptoms, persist for longer periods of time and are linked more strongly to one’s social and occupational functioning.
Serotonin, commonly known as the ‘happy hormone’, plays a crucial role in our body and affects behaviour, memory and mood. It is also implicated in many psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Researchers at KCL investigated the effects of serotonin on 54 participants, 26 of whom had a schizophrenia diagnosis. Through brain imaging, they found that for participants with schizophrenia, serotonin release was greater in the parts of the brain related to planning and motivation. Upon further analysis, they established that an increase in the release of serotonin in the brain was associated with increased negative symptoms. These results point to a dysregulation of serotonin in people with schizophrenia. So, if schizophrenia regulation can be controlled, there is potential to manage and treat negative symptoms.
Overall, these findings suggest that serotonin plays a larger role in schizophrenia than previously thought. By targeting serotonin regulation, treatments can be developed to improve symptoms that present medication fails to improve. However, further research and replications in larger and more diverse samples are needed to fully understand these mechanisms to develop safe and effective treatment. Such research represents a promising step towards improving the quality of life and long-term outcomes for people living with schizophrenia.
About the author
