Magnet therapy silences schizoid mind's voices

12 мая, 2003
: The movie 'A Beautiful Mind' portrays Nobel laureate John Nash's schizophrenia as a series of ominous hallucinations- an imaginary student occupies the mathematician's undergraduate rooms at Princeton, imaginary spies trail him around on the campus and .. The Economic Times via NewsEdge Corporation : : The movie 'A Beautiful Mind' portrays Nobel laureate John Nash's schizophrenia as a series of ominous hallucinations- an imaginary student occupies the mathematician's undergraduate rooms at Princeton, imaginary spies trail him around on the campus and equally imaginary operatives sit him down in elaborate, science-fiction-style rooms to give him orders that only he can hear. Audiences all over the world loved the movie, which went on to win four Oscars. However, mental health experts had a different take. Dr Fuller Torrey, author of the best-selling 'Surviving Schizophrenia', for instance, said, "If someone walked into a room with the kind of s y m p t o m s shown in the movie, all of us in the business would send him for an MRI to see if he had a brain tumour, or had a reaction to a drug or something. (For what was shown) was not a real version of schizophrenia, it was Hollywood's version.'' More pertinently, recent research suggests that the hallucinations that were the bane of John Nash's beautiful mind could be relieved by an experimental procedure that directs magnetic waves toward certain brain regions. Scientists led by psychiatrist Ralph E. Hoffmann of Yale University report in a recent issue of Archives of General Psychiatry' that of 12 patients who received up to 16 minutes of magnetic stimulation for nine days, nine said their hallucinations had improved. People reported that they were hearing voices less often and were less disturbed by such hallucinations when they did appear. In contrast, similar improvements were reported by only two of the 12 participants who had a placebo treatment that involved a similar procedure, but not magnetic stimulation. Dr Hoffman and his colleagues said they zeroed in on hallucinations because they believed them to be "critical, core experiences that really constitute what having schizophrenia is all about''. They also believe that schizophrenia causes a loss of gray matter that intensifies the link between the brain region involved in speech production (Broca's area) with that of speech perception (Wernicke's Area). Magnetic therapy seemed to work by calming the nerves that, under other circumstances, would become excited and lead people to hallucinate. As many as 50 per cent to 75 per cent of schizophrenia patients report hearing voices that are not there. These may be voices that whisper to the person, command them to do things, comment on their actions or even suggest courses of action-haranguing, insulting and sometimes provoking the patients to violence or even suicide. The voices can be from people they know (a dead relative) or strangers. However, despite their widespread prevalence, auditory hallucinations have traditionally been dismissed as 'crazy talk' by doctors treating schizophrenia. While medication does help in many cases, as many as 25 per cent of schizophrenics with auditory hallucinations show only partial or no improvement with drugs. The patients in the current study, for instance, heard voices in their head up to five times a day before magnetic therapy. (One patient who committed suicide described her voices as 'a constant state of mental rape'.) The researchers targeted the magnetic beams to brain regions that previous studies have indicated play a critical role in auditory hallucinations. In earlier research, Dr Hoffman and his colleagues had some success in quieting auditory hallucinations in schizophrenics who received a shorter course of magnetic therapy, lasting only four days. However, all the patients who improved after four days of treatment had a resurgence of symptoms anywhere from four days to two months after treatment. In the current study, more than half of the patients maintained their improvements for at least 15 weeks. "However, in both groups, it may be necessary to repeat the procedure." Dr Hoffmann also emphasised that the technique was still experimental and needed to be critically evaluated before being made available to patients. Publication: The Economic Times Distributed by Financial Times Information Limited - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire <> << Copyright ©2003 Financial Times Limited, All Rights Reserved >>
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