From identification of neurofunctional systems to individualization of treatment for schizophrenic disorders

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder characterized by positive, negative, affective and cognitive symptoms and can be viewed as a disorder of impaired neural plasticity. Schizophrenia leads to livelong disability in a substantial proportion of the sufferers and it still connected with an unfavorable outcome. Therefore, it is inevitable to find and apply interventions to reduce the risk of psychosis and/or prevent a further chronification of the illness. There are two major obstacles translational schizophrenia research has to face: One is the introduction of easy to measure and reliable biomarkers; the second are add-on treatments to improve the residual symptoms of this illness. To reach the first goal, subgroups must be identified utilizing biomarkers in order to induce specifically targeted treatments. For the long-term prognosis and outcome it is necessary for biomarkers to constitute easy measurable clinical routine parameters. Studies will be summarized using clinical (GAF, PANSS, CGI) and imaging data in order to accurately predict the outcome in the first week, for 4 and for 52 weeks. This will help to subdivide these groups into a god, an intermediate and a fair outcome group. Future clinical studies will benefit enormously if it was possible to focus on the intermediate group, where recovery could be reached by targeted treatment as most of those subjects are showing partial recovery or remission.Disclosure of interestThe author declares that he has no competing interest.