Paul Thompson, PhD

Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder that affects 1% of the population worldwide. Patients often suffer their first psychotic outbreak in their late teens or early 20s. Despite advances in neuroleptic drugs, many patients' symptoms remain refractory to treatment, with recurrent episodes of auditory and visual hallucinations, bizarre delusions, depression, and social withdrawal that can last an entire lifetime.

New imaging techniques have shown a dynamic wave of gray matter loss in early-onset schizophrenia. Can this pattern of destruction provide a window of opportunity to combat this disease?