Schizophrenia Pharmacology: Past, Present, and Future Targets for Intervention.

The first medication for schizophrenia was discovered serendipitously. Years later, it was shown that the medication worked by blocking dopamine, and to this date, all available antipsychotic medications also work by blocking dopamine. They differ, however, in many other respects.

Cannabis-related working memory deficits and associated subcortical morphological differences in healthy individuals and schizophrenia subjects.

Cannabis use is associated with working memory (WM) impairments; however, the relationship between cannabis use and WM neural circuitry is unclear. We examined whether a cannabis use disorder (CUD) was associated with differences in brain morphology between control subjects with and without a CUD and between schizophrenia subjects with and without a CUD, and whether these differences related to WM and CUD history. Subjects group-matched on demographics included 44 healthy controls, 10 subjects with a CUD history, 28 schizophrenia subjects with no history of substance use disorders, and 15 schizophrenia subjects with a CUD history.

Thalamic pathology in schizophrenia.

The thalamus plays a critical role in the coordination of information as it passes from region to region within the brain. A disruption of that information flow may give rise to some of the cardinal symptoms of schizophrenia. In support of this hypothesis, schizophrenia-like syndromes emerge when illnesses, such as stroke, selectively damage the thalamus while sparing the rest of the brain.