Scotia Reports Advances In Schizophrenia Therapy

Scotia, the UK-based pharmaceuticals company, is to embark on a new series of Phase II trials with a number of its optimal lipid single-chemical products for schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases. The company presented encouraging data at the Association of European Psychiatrists Conference in London on July 11.

The findings offer an explanation for the limitations of the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, which states that an excess of dopamine in the brain is the cause of the disease. However, dopamine modulating drugs, while effective against positive symptoms of the disease, tend to have little or no efficacy against negative symptoms. Current therapies are accompanied with side effects, which in many cases are so unbearable that the patient ceases medication. Scotia, on the other hand, believes that the etiology of schizophrenia is based in the lipid membrane of the nerve terminals.

Phospholipids are vital constructs of neuronal membranes, and are essential for normal development and nervous system functioning. Evidence is accumulating that the essential fatty acids arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic, and their metabolites - which in normal circumstances would modulate neurotransmitter receptors and second-messenger systems - are severely disrupted in the red blood cell membranes of schizophrenics.