Study shows the possibility that blindness protects people from schizophrenia

by Mustafa ezz

The possibility that congenital or early blindness has a protective effect against schizophrenia was demonstrated in previous case studies . Following this, a new study analyzing more than 460,000 data shows further investigation results that "Blindness protects people from schizophrenia".

Congenital blindness is protective for schizophrenia and other psychotic illness. A whole-population study. - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920996418304055

Being Born Blind Appears to Somehow Protect People From Getting Schizophrenia
https://www.sciencealert.com/being-born-blind-appears-to-somehow-protect-people-from-getting-schizophrenia

Researchers at the University of Western Australia revealed that in the report from 1980 to 2001, there were no cases of cortical blind patients developing schizophrenia. This data was for 467,945 children living in Western Australia, and 1870 children, 0.4% of the total, were diagnosed as having schizophrenia. 66 of the total samples were cortical blind, but there was no single schizophrenic patient.

This study is drawing much attention due to the very large number of samples and possibly showing a new aspect of schizophrenia.

"As a result of observation of congenital cortical blindness in a case study, we knew that there was a protective phenomenon, and the data from careful clinical investigation we guarantee now supports this result," Those are saying.

However, as it is said that "the absence of evidence is not evidence of" does not exist "", this survey result does not indicate that "cortical blindness is the key to reducing schizophrenia" I need attention. In addition, this survey is targeted at people aged 14 to 35 years old, and those who develop schizophrenia in the second half of life are not included in the data.

Although the relationship between blindness and schizophrenia is a field that requires further study in the future, at the present stage it is "a part with dysfunction in schizophrenic patients, that is, recognition and attention of sound, memory ability, language It is hypothesized that the power of the part covering the use is increasing, the congenital blindness is increasing. On the other hand, patients with peripheral visual disorder also showed less probability of becoming schizophrenia than usual, but peripheral vision disorder does not alter the brain unlike cortical blindness.

by Dyversions

The possibility that blindness brings about a change in the brain can be said for other mental disorders, but the effect of discontinuity with reality on sensory devices of the brain will be different if blindness is congenital or acquired Some researchers show exists .

On the other hand, the results of this study may be a new approach to treatment for schizophrenia, and there is also the possibility that the influence of disease can be minimized by discovering and coping with signs of illness at an early stage about. Responding to schizophrenia, researchers said that they can take "cognitive training focused on sensory cognitive function and a therapeutic strategy that reconstructs cortical function".