Latest news with #schizophrenia
BBC News
10 hours ago
- BBC News
Habiba Naveed detained for killing landlord and his cat
A woman who said she had been "sent to eliminate evil from the world" after she killed her landlord and his cat has been given an indefinite hospital Naveed, 35, admitted the manslaughter of lawyer Christopher Brown who she attacked at the home they shared in Lewisham, south-east London, on 14 August 2024. His cat Snow was found with a stab wound to the Old Bailey heard that following the attacks, she told her brother she was Jesus, and later told police "the devil attacked me last night and I won".Naveed, who has paranoid schizophrenia, was "psychotic", and her mental health had "deteriorated" in the days before the attack, the court heard. Prosecutor Kerry Broome told the court Naveed believed she had connections to the royal family and was the daughter of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed. 'Slept in coffins' After the attack, Naveed told her brother "she was Jesus and had been sent to eliminate evil from the world", and later said to police "the devil attacked me last night and I won," Ms Broome court heard Naveed had told police she "slept in coffins", and Jesus had raised her from the Broome said of a previous account of the attack given by the defendant: "She believed she had seen the deceased kill his mother and that the deceased was evil.""She heard a voice telling her to kill him three times," the prosecutor said, adding Naveed hit Mr Brown with a pan and then strangled him."She believed the evil spirit had jumped out of the deceased and into the cat. She got a knife and she cut the cat," Ms Broome Metropolitan Police launched an investigation after Mr Brown's body was discovered under a dressing gown in the living room of the home they shared.A post-mortem examination found he had died from blunt-force trauma. Family concern The pair had lived together at Polsted Road for several years, during which Mr Brown was persuaded to put the property, which he had inherited from his parents, in both his and Naveed's names, the prosecutor house was refurbished and lodgers were taken in, which Naveed orchestrated, the court the days leading up to the attack, Naveed's family were concerned at the state of her mental health, leading them to call 111 and an ambulance, the hearing was sentencing, Judge Sarah Munro KC said two psychiatrists agreed on the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and that Naveed had "no insight" into her mental health, diagnosis or repeatedly became aggressive during previous hospital admissions and had been off her prescribed medication for a year at the time of the killing, the court defendant was a frequent user of cannabis which exacerbated her symptoms but did not cause her psychosis, according to psychiatrists, the judge said. 'Kind man' In a tearful statement, an unnamed colleague from Mr Brown's law firm told the hearing the victim would have helped anyone if he could."He wasn't just a 72-year-old-man tragically killed by his housemate, he was a solicitor, a boss, a partner, a kind man," she a statement read out by Ms Broome, Mr Brown's cousin described him as a "kind and caring person" who would go out of his way to help his family and his attended the hearing via video-link and only spoke to confirm her identity. Judge Munro imposed a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and a restriction order under Section 41 - meaning Naveed can be detained indefinitely.
Telegraph
20 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Why this scientist believes bread is making us sad
Could the bread in your sandwich, the pasta in your salad or the oats in your breakfast be making you depressed? That is the theory that scientists are avidly exploring with studies showing a link between gluten and an array of mental health conditions, from ADHD to schizophrenia. Deanna L Kelly is a professor of psychiatry for Mental Illness Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who has spent the past 17 years leading clinical trials in schizophrenia and severe mental illness, as well as being active in psychopharmacology research. 'I would have been sceptical if you'd told me I'd end up studying this connection,' says Kelly. 'My line of thinking was therapy and medications; I didn't know food and diet could actually be good medicine.' Her scientific journey began by analysing data from soldiers during the Second World War. It showed that during wheat shortages hospitalisations went down. Kelly and her colleagues then looked at the work in the 1970s of Curtis Dohan, a psychiatrist, who was publishing cases of people with schizophrenia recovering on a wheat-free diet. Dohan also visited remote islands in Papua New Guinea, where wheat was not part of the diet and found schizophrenia to be virtually absent, compared to its occurrence in wheat eating populations elsewhere. Kelly then had the opportunity to run a large clinical trial looking at the antibodies produced by the body in a reaction to gluten. What she found was very high rates of antibodies to gluten in the bodies of people with schizophrenia. Her findings have now led her to believe there is a strong connection between brain function and people who have gluten sensitivity. And she is not alone. Evidence shows that consuming foods containing gluten may be linked to a host of psychiatric symptoms, via an immune response, in up to one in 17 people. Get Your Brain Off Grain, the book she has co-authored, draws together the most up to date research on the subject. 'There's really been this disconnect between gastroenterology and psychiatry. We don't know everything. But it's another step closer connecting the dots about these illnesses.' What is gluten sensitivity Gluten is a group of proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. These are key grains found in breads, pastas, pastries and many other of our favourite foods. Some people are sensitive to gluten. This means their immune system 'fights' against gluten as a foreign invader in the body. Coeliac disease is the most well-known type of gluten-related autoimmune disease. It causes damage to the digestive tract leading to a range of gastro-intestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea, bloating and stomach pain, as well as fatigue, weight loss and skin rashes. Coeliac disease runs in families and is diagnosed via a blood test or intestinal biopsy. It is related to another type of gluten sensitivity, often called non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), which is about 10 times more prevalent than coeliac disease. However tests for coeliac disease are often negative in those with NCGS. 'It's challenging for someone to be diagnosed with non coeliac gluten sensitivity,' says Kelly. Gluten and inflammation Gluten was only introduced into our diets about 6,000 years ago. 'The idea of breaking it down is really challenging for our bodies and it never breaks down completely,' says Kelly. When a person with gluten sensitivity eats something with gluten in it – even 'healthy' brown pasta or bread – their body produces antibodies to fight against the gluten. While two types of protein join to make gluten, gliadin and glutenin, it is the former that induces an immune response. This can cause inflammation and contribute to damage in the gut, which leads to the development of 'leaky gut'. The weakened gut wall allows the antibodies to gliadin to leak from the intestine into the general bloodstream. 'When it gets across the stomach lining, the body sees it as a foreign substance for some people,' says Kelly. Inflammation and the brain Consequently inflammation may occur in other parts of the body, including a person's brain. When the antibodies' fight gets to the brain, symptoms that develop may include not only foggy thinking, and lack of energy, but also poor emotional control, anxiety, mood changes, hallucinations and/ or seizures, that are often resistant to treatment with medications. 'There's a specific peptide sequence called 33-mer [found in wheat] that is highly associated with an immune response,' says Deanna. 'If you look at the structure of that, it's very similar to one of the structures of the GRINA receptor, a receptor in the brain. So our bodies potentially can't tell the difference.' It is one of Kelly's theories that in some people their immune system might be attacking some of the tissue in the brain because it looks like gluten. 'We have a paper showing that these antibodies to the receptors to the brain are higher in people who have the antigliadin antibodies.' What causes depression and anxiety The area of the brain called the amygdala functions to help calm fear and anxiety. People with anxiety disorders have been shown to have an exaggerated amygdala response when exposed to events that evoke anxiety. Serotonin, a chemical messenger in the nervous system and part of the brain's communication system, is believed to be a key neurotransmitter involved in anxiety disorders. Interestingly, the gut provides approximately 95 per cent of the body's total serotonin and production is influenced by the particular balance of gut microbes in the individual person. Of course, not everyone with psychiatric and neurological issues is gluten sensitive. However, what is interesting, says Kelly, is that: 'All these disorders that we write about, the literature now is leaning towards them all having inflammation as a cause. 'The immune system is likely not working right in some people. And that leads to inflammatory markers and inflammation. My suggestion is that to some people, gluten is one of the culprits in this immune inflammatory reaction.' The most common symptoms Kelly sees among her psychiatric patients are brain fog, anxiety or depressive symptoms. 'They sometimes have headaches and migraines. Joint pain is common too.' Coeliac disease and NCGS diagnoses are more common in individuals with ADHD symptoms than in the general population. The link between coeliac disease and depression is well-established. One large study of over 2,000 people with coeliac disease showed a 39 per cent lifetime prevalence of depressive symptoms. 'One theory is that depression stems from the difficulty of living with a chronic illness,' says Kelly. 'But there are studies showing a more direct physiological link between coeliac disease and depression.' There is even clearer clinical data that those with schizophrenia can be helped by following a gluten-free diet. One patient of Kelly's suffering from schizophrenia always saw her illness worsen after having gluten. 'She was doing well in the community but when she had gluten she would be hospitalised. 'When she got into the hospital they would give her gluten because they wouldn't believe the family that that mattered. Each time the family would have to fight about it at every hospital.' Other proteins are also linked to inflammation of the brain. 'Casein from milk is another protein that is highly immunogenic.' The role of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) Outside of the gluten realm there's a movement towards understanding the impact of ultra-processed foods on our health. 'There's evidence to show that depression and anxiety and most mental health conditions are higher in people who eat high levels of UPFs, especially in the western diet.' And wheat is part of that. Wheat is now the most widely cultivated crop in the world, and it supplies 20 per cent of all food calories and protein consumed by the global population. 'The data is showing us that there are more people sensitive to gluten than before, we think that's due to a higher gluten content in UPFs.' One of the reasons why gluten may now cause a more severe immune response is that there has been a six-fold increase in the gliadin content of wheat over time. This may be down to the use of high-nitrogen fertilisers and how wheat is processed. The antibodies show the way One young woman who came to Kelly suffering from anxiety and brain fog had previously been tested for gluten sensitivity by her gastroenterologist. 'She was told she didn't have coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity. So I brought her in to take part in my study, and sure enough her antibody response was the biggest I'd ever seen. 'I actually found antibodies to suggest coeliac disease, which are called TTG. I gave her the paperwork and said, 'please go back to your doctor'. When she went back, they did a biopsy and they found she had coeliac disease. It had been missed.' She is one of almost a thousand people in the general population that Kelly has tested for gluten antibodies. 'When people have these antibodies, once I say, 'You're positive for this, it might be worth trying a gluten free diet ', most people report their joint pain went away, or their brain fog, or their anxiety and depression improved.' She has published 24 peer reviewed studies around these antibodies and the relationship of gluten to neurological and psychiatric illnesses. 'Thirty per cent of my patients with schizophrenia have antibodies to gliadin. That means their body is having an immune response to wheat.' Should you change your diet? Her work has changed her diet. Kelly now eats a low carb, almost gluten free. 'I'm not a fad diet person,' she says. 'If you'd told me I would be studying this I would have laughed. But science took me there.' From looking at animal studies, the data would suggest that gluten could be bad for everyone. 'We haven't gone so far as to say that,' says Kelly, cautiously. 'But when you start to dig into it, and you've seen what a brain looks like of an animal of gluten, it really makes me think twice about how much should be in my diet.' Still, not everybody should be on a gluten-free diet. About 10 per cent of the population have NCGS. And Kelly sees lots of people who have no immune response at all. 'Their bodies handle it fine. But then there are lots of people who have the antibodies and coeliac in their families and that's where removal could really help people.' While it's not going to be a cure all for everybody, typically Kelly sees changes in her patients in as little as three weeks. Brain imaging data has also shown how the blood flow in their brain improves on a gluten-free diet. 'We do recommend talking to your dietitian or doctor beforehand. That's because many foods that contain gluten are fortified with minerals and vitamins that our body needs, but struggles to get from our diet. Things like folic acid. You need folate for your brain.' She also notes that for those who have a psychiatric disorder, such as depression or schizophrenia, eating a gluten-free diet can be a challenge. 'Once you are sick, it's easier to just continue to eat gluten because it's cheap and you don't have to spend time cooking. When you're not feeling well you don't want to spend time cooking fresh vegetables. It becomes a cycle.' Food as medicine Over 2,000 years ago Hippocrates said, 'let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food'. 'All this time later we are now starting to pay attention to the impact of the food we put in our body,' says Kelly. The parents of one young man with a seizure disorder noticed that every time he had a big spaghetti meal his seizures were worse. 'And no one thought that that was related,' says Kelly, who was consulted by a neurologist on the case. 'While he didn't test positive for coeliac disease, he did have antibodies to gliadin. And so we suggested a gluten free diet and he has been seizure free since.' However, it is challenging for people to understand that a gluten-free diet helps their brain. She is used to resistance to new ideas, that is the lot of the scientist. However she says: 'We now have the technology. We can look at brain imaging and antibodies and show that it actually connects. We know for a fact that the brain is impacted by what we put into our gut and now we have to unravel all the mysteries there.'
New York Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Sarah Morlok Cotton, Quadruplet Who Knew Fame and Suffering, Dies at 95
Sarah Morlok Cotton, the last surviving member of a set of identical quadruplets who charmed Depression-era America with song-and-dance performances, and then took part in a landmark psychological study after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, died on July 7 in Belleville, Mich. She was 95. Her death, at an adult foster home, was confirmed by her son David Cotton. The Morlok Quads, as they came to be known, were a medical marvel and attracted crowds of people to Edward W. Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich., shortly after they were born there on May 19, 1930. Newspapers held naming contests, and the winning entry suggested names that derived from the first letters of the hospital: Edna, Wilma, Sarah and Helen. The quadruplets' middle names were simply initials denoting their birth order. (Sarah, the third born, was C.) Donations poured in almost immediately. The city of Lansing provided the family with a rent-free home. The Massachusetts Carriage Company sent a custom-made baby carriage with four seats. Businessmen opened bank accounts for each child. 'Lansing's Morlok quadruplets,' The Associated Press wrote, 'are the most famous group of babies on the American continent.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Pentagon tightens rules on getting medical waivers to join the military
WASHINGTON (AP) — People with congestive heart failure, undergoing treatment for schizophrenia or who have a history of paraphilic disorders will no longer be eligible for a medical waiver to serve in the military, according to new rules issued by the Pentagon on Tuesday. The guidance signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth updates a list of conditions that disqualify potential recruits from serving in the armed forces. The decision comes after the Pentagon announced earlier this year that it would ban transgender troops and review other medical conditions that are currently eligible for a waiver. "America's warfighters must be physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest of conditions," Hegseth wrote in the memo announcing the changes. 'Severe underlying medical conditions introduce significant risks on the battlefield and threaten not only mission priorities, but also the health and safety of the affected individual and their fellow service members.' Waivers have long been used to enlist young people who might otherwise be unqualified for military service due to a wide array of medical, conduct or other reasons. Most waivers are issued for medical conditions ranging from asthma, eyesight problems or skin disorders to more complex health conditions, such as past psychological illness or previous sports injuries that may have healed but still must be evaluated. Prior to the new rules, heart failure, current treatment for schizophrenia and a history of paraphilic disorders — defined as a persistent sexual interest in atypical objects or activities — were among a long list of physical and mental health conditions in which waivers were allowed. Multiple sclerosis, a history of cystic fibrosis, past organ transplants or a suicide attempt within the past 12 months also will be considered disqualifying conditions that make a person illegible for service. The new rules list several conditions in which a waiver may only be granted by the secretary of a military branch. Those conditions include a missing eye, hand or foot, past corneal transplants, liver failure, kidney disease, past psychotic disorders or the presence of an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator. The detailed rules governing which medical conditions quality for a waiver have come under greater scrutiny amid the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops. New rules required active duty troops as well as National Guard and Reserve troops to identify themselves as transgender and voluntarily leave the service or face involuntary separations. Solve the daily Crossword
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Pentagon tightens rules on getting medical waivers to join the military
People with congestive heart failure, undergoing treatment for schizophrenia or who have a history of paraphilic disorders will no longer be eligible for a medical waiver to serve in the military, according to new rules issued by the Pentagon on Tuesday. The guidance signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth updates a list of conditions that disqualify potential recruits from serving in the armed forces. The decision comes after the Pentagon announced earlier this year that it would ban transgender troops and review other medical conditions that are currently eligible for a waiver. "America's warfighters must be physically and mentally capable of performing their duties in the harshest of conditions," Hegseth wrote in the memo announcing the changes. 'Severe underlying medical conditions introduce significant risks on the battlefield and threaten not only mission priorities, but also the health and safety of the affected individual and their fellow service members.' Waivers have long been used to enlist young people who might otherwise be unqualified for military service due to a wide array of medical, conduct or other reasons. Most waivers are issued for medical conditions ranging from asthma, eyesight problems or skin disorders to more complex health conditions, such as past psychological illness or previous sports injuries that may have healed but still must be evaluated. Prior to the new rules, heart failure, current treatment for schizophrenia and a history of paraphilic disorders — defined as a persistent sexual interest in atypical objects or activities — were among a long list of physical and mental health conditions in which waivers were allowed. Multiple sclerosis, a history of cystic fibrosis, past organ transplants or a suicide attempt within the past 12 months also will be considered disqualifying conditions that make a person illegible for service. The new rules list several conditions in which a waiver may only be granted by the secretary of a military branch. Those conditions include a missing eye, hand or foot, past corneal transplants, liver failure, kidney disease, past psychotic disorders or the presence of an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator. The detailed rules governing which medical conditions quality for a waiver have come under greater scrutiny amid the Trump administration's ban on transgender troops. New rules required active duty troops as well as National Guard and Reserve troops to identify themselves as transgender and voluntarily leave the service or face involuntary separations.
