Fascinating article on schizopjhrenia at; http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24992-rethinking-schizophrenia-taming-demons-without-drugs.html?page=1#.UvbYRfmSzoE
As the case against the drugs mounts, some are beginning to question whether the dopamine theory itself is right. After all, there has never been strong evidence that people with schizophrenia have overactive dopamine signalling, says Joanna Moncrieff, a psychiatrist who has recently written a polemic against antipsychotics called The Bitterest Pills. Along with others, Moncrieff believes antipsychotics may simply be another version of the tranquillisers used back in the 1950s. "If someone's preoccupied by their psychotic symptoms, if you can dampen down their thinking, they lose interest in their delusions," she says.
Today, there are rival theories about the causes of psychosis. Some cases may be caused by an autoimmune reaction to certain proteins on the surface of brain cells. Other research implicates different brain chemicals, including glutamate and serotonin. Several compounds that boost glutamate signalling in the brain have reached early clinical trials, although it is too soon to say if they will pass the larger trials needed to prove their worth.
In the meantime, the problems with antipsychotics are leading to growing interest in a range of alternatives to medication. The most promising are talking therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which aims to train people in new ways of thinking.
