Treecreeper
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A lady of my acquaintance has a son, aged around 45-50, who has been institutionalised for many years with schizophrenia. He has also been Type 1 diabetic since his teens. The diabetes came first and was controlled with animal insulin. Then he was switched to human analogue insulin and he quickly went from normal to schizophrenic. She suspects the two circumstances are connected and asked me to see what I could find. Answer was, not much. But I did spot this bit of research from 2010:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 182645.htm
The research makes a link between schizophrenia and impaired insulin function. Insulin (this was new to me) has a role in regulating neurotransmitters in the brain, and the researchers showed by experiments on mice, and biochemical studies, that if insulin is not fulfilling its signalling role correctly the intersynaptic concentration of dopamine is reduced, resulting in mental disorders including schizophrenia.
The research says nothing about human analogue insulin. But thinking about it, if problems with natural insulin function might (in theory) precipitate schizophrenia, is it not feasible that un-natural insulin could have a similar, maybe even more pronounced, adverse effect?
I had my six-monthly check at the hospital this afternoon so I asked the consultant if he had ever come across such a suggestion. He is a professor so would certainly know, and he gave a straight no. That's probably the end of the matter but before putting it to bed I thought I'd ask for comments. Maybe someone knows of a similar case.
The lady in question, by the way, has finally persuaded the doctors to put her son back onto animal insulin, after many years of cajoling. It will be interesting to see how the change affects his condition.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 182645.htm
The research makes a link between schizophrenia and impaired insulin function. Insulin (this was new to me) has a role in regulating neurotransmitters in the brain, and the researchers showed by experiments on mice, and biochemical studies, that if insulin is not fulfilling its signalling role correctly the intersynaptic concentration of dopamine is reduced, resulting in mental disorders including schizophrenia.
The research says nothing about human analogue insulin. But thinking about it, if problems with natural insulin function might (in theory) precipitate schizophrenia, is it not feasible that un-natural insulin could have a similar, maybe even more pronounced, adverse effect?
I had my six-monthly check at the hospital this afternoon so I asked the consultant if he had ever come across such a suggestion. He is a professor so would certainly know, and he gave a straight no. That's probably the end of the matter but before putting it to bed I thought I'd ask for comments. Maybe someone knows of a similar case.
The lady in question, by the way, has finally persuaded the doctors to put her son back onto animal insulin, after many years of cajoling. It will be interesting to see how the change affects his condition.