Experience Mindstorm

Janssen is debuting A Virtual Hallucination: Mindstorm at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in San Diego, CA. A 3D theatre experience, Mindstorm, offers individuals a chance to understand what it may be like to experience symptoms of schizophrenia.

As approximately 70 percent of people with schizophrenia experience auditory hallucinations (e.g., hearing voices) and 25 percent experience visual illusions or distortions, this innovative tool allows those who do not suffer from this invasive disease to experience, empathize and truly understand its debilitating effects.

Mindstorm is comprised of 11 high-tech seats with built-in audio speakers, featuring lighting, wind, and scents that are timed to the program presentation. The experience allows individuals to live, albeit briefly, through some of the most flagrant and disruptive symptoms that people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders experience. Participants wear lightweight polarized glasses, and sit in a high-tech, virtual-reality technology theatre while viewing a short (6-minute) 3D theatre experience of the sights and sounds, as well as selected scents and wind effects, of simulated hallucinations.

Utilizing input from individuals with the disease, and a panel of expert psychiatrists, a Virtual Hallucination: MINDSTORM was developed with Impact Unlimited as a tool to create understanding and empathy toward schizophrenia by simulating realistic sensory hallucinations.

A Virtual Hallucination: MINDSTORM is an invaluable teaching aid for medical students, physicians, the healthcare community, and law enforcement personnel. The simulation has the potential to create empathy for a frightening condition that most people can barely imagine. The implications of this technology are endless in affecting those who come in contact with or relate to people with schizophrenia—friends and families of those suffering with schizophrenia, healthcare professionals, legislators and law enforcement. It is not intended for use with patients with mental illness.

A portable 3D version of MINDSTORM is currently being developed and a 2D video/audio-only program is also available as a DVD.
www.janssen.com/janssen/news_mindstorm.html.

Missing DNA boosts schizophrenia risk

Two large studies of schizophrenia patients have yielded the most convincing evidence yet that the disease can be caused by mistakes in genes. Jocelyn Kaiser of ScienceNOW Daily News, reports that researchers have linked a much higher risk for schizophrenia to three chromosomal regions that are missing chunks of DNA. Although only a tiny fraction of patients carried these particular glitches, similar errors may help explain other cases of the disease.

Schizophrenia affects as many as 1 in 100 people; it often runs in families. So far, searches for common genes linked to schizophrenia have been unsuccessful. In March, however, researchers reported a new clue in Science: Schizophrenics are more likely than healthy people to have rare variations in gene copy number—that is, they have fewer or more copies of a gene than most other people. Many of these copy number changes occurred in only one individual or one family, however, and the study could not pin down the risks associated with a particular variant.

Now the largest studies to date have bolstered the case for copy number variants. The U.S.–European International Schizophrenia Consortium, which compared copy numbers in about 3,400 patients and 3,200 controls, found that large chunks of extra or missing DNA were 15 percent more common in people with the disease compared with controls. Moreover, the researchers found a much greater risk for patients with DNA deletions in two specific locations on chromosome 1 and chromosome 15.

A second study by deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland, and a European consortium known as SGENE, which involved about 4,700 schizophrenia cases and 41,200 controls, pinpointed these same two variants and an additional one on chromosome 15.

Back-to-school rush

Whether it’s the first day of kindergarten, returning from a long summer vacation, or going to a new school, back-to-school time can be overwhelming for many parents, children, and teens. As the summer comes to an end and the time to return to work or school draws near, many of us are likely to find our stress levels increase. The transition from August to September can test families’ coping skills in dealing with adjustments such as new teachers, new classrooms and new schools as well as parents struggling with the return to hectic work schedules.

A 2006 American Psychological Association (APA) Survey found that nearly half (47 percent) of Americans are concerned with the level of stress in their daily lives and those with children living at home were more likely to be concerned about stress than those without. Increased stress can push people toward using unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, comfort eating, poor diet choices, inactivity, and drinking to manage their stress. Reliance on such behavior can lead to long-term, serious health problems.

“Returning to work after a vacation, transitioning your children to a new school, even fighting a busier rush hour as schools reopen can all contribute to an increased stress level,” says psychologist Ron Palomares, MD. “People who cope with stress in unhealthy ways may alleviate symptoms in the short term, but end up creating significant personal health problems over time, and, ironically, more stress. My advice is to become aware of events that are likely to increase your stress levels and take steps to actively manage it and promote healthy coping behaviors in your children.”

APA offers these strategies for families managing stress:

• Define stress. What does stress feel like to you? Does your stress increase during periods of change? How do your children experience stress?
  
  
• Identify your family’s stressors. What events or situations seem to lead to stressful feelings?
  
  
• Recognize how your family deals with stress. Do you engage in unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drinking, or eating poorly to cope with your stress? Do you lose patience with your children or spouse when you feel overwhelmed?
  
  
• Talk to your children. Discuss their concerns and worries about the start of a new school year or a new school.
  
  
• Spend time together as a family. Take time to relax with your spouse and children, eating meals together, scheduling a weekly family game night, or engaging in weekend activities such as a bicycle ride, or a visit to a museum.
  
  
• Analyze your schedule. Assess your priorities and delegate whatever tasks you can (e.g., order a healthy take-out dinner after a busy day, share household responsibilities). Eliminate tasks that are not essential and make more time for those that are to reduce anxiety.
  
  
• Ask for support. Accepting help and support from those who care about you can help alleviate stress.

In the next issue of Sz Digest:

Coming to terms with the diagnosis of a loved one can be difficult. And after the initial emotional response, acceptance, and the maintenance process begins, a new bump may appear on the road to recovery: How to share the diagnosis of schizophrenia with family, friends and, in some cases, the workplace. Find out how others have shared the news with their family and friends in the Summer 2008 issue of Schizophrenia Digest, available July 14 in the United States and July 28 in Canada.

Click here to read our cover story