Neururopsychiatric Disorders Case Study - 1356 Words

Introduction Despite strong progress in our understanding of psychiatric disorders, moving away from psychological theories of unstable ego or bad mothering1 to clear physical pathologies, the exact etiology of psychiatric diseases remains elusive. The advancements in in-vivo brain imaging and micro-array studies in the past decades have revealed much about the macroscopic and microscopic physical alterations that are happening in human patients, and has put forward a new etiological candidate: myelin. Myelin-related diseases and alterations of white matter in neuropsychiatric disorders Numerous MRI studies have revealed specific white matter alterations in almost all neurological disorders including but not limited to ADHD, Major†¦show more content†¦While most animals stop their myelination process after birth, humans undergo complex myelination developments until adulthood10. The constant refinement and recalibration of this process during our adolescence and adulthood is essential in regulating the speed of signal propagation and the synchrony of the network during learning11,12. The complex communication between our brain networks is dependent on synchronous firing, which can be observed through electroencephalography in the form of oscillations13. Irregular oscillatory patterns in multiple psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia14, bipolar disorder15, autism16 and dementia17 have been observed, which have lead some researchers to define them as diseases of dysconnectivity18,19. This elaborate myelination machinery needed for the creation and maint enance of proper circuit functionality might explain the elevated energy requirements of our brain20. Unsurprisingly, disruption in energy and lipid metabolism can be observed prior to the onset of Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia21. Furthermore, studies have shown that myelination slows down during childhood before resuming in late adolescence10, and others have demonstrated that oligodendrocytes developing later in life become more vulnerable22. These two studies corroborate the hypotheses of a meticulous myelin structure role in psychiatric disorders which often presents themselves in late adolescence. White matter alteration in