Blindness May Eliminate Schizophrenia
…But more evidence is needed
An interesting article focused on how a type of blindness could protect against schizophrenia. According to Science Alert, since the middle of the last century, researchers have been looking at a curious link – it seems that being born blind protects people from developing schizophrenia.
In particular, cortical blindness – caused by abnormalities in the brain, rather than eye damage– seems to be incompatible with having schizophrenia.
According to the authors of this latest research, no incidents of schizophrenia in cortically blind people have ever been recorded to date.
The researchers analyzed data from 467,945 children born in Western Australia between 1980 and 2001. In this sample, 1,870 children (0.4 percent) developed schizophrenia, but none of the 66 children in the sample who were born with cortical blindness ended up getting a schizophrenia diagnosis.
“The protective phenomenon observed in case studies of people with congenital cortical blindness, and now supported by our whole-population data, warrants careful, clinical investigation,” write the researchers from the University of Western Australia.
However, according to a few critics, this sample size is very SMALL. In other words, correlation does not equal causation. It was also noted how this sample size can still develop schizophrenia in the future. The numbers alone can only offer some insight into how schizophrenia may work or how to improve the treatment.
Overall, there seem to be genetic underpinnings and brain structures involved in schizophrenia and blindness, with insights from language processing, laying emphasis on the three structures that particularly stand out: the occipital cortex, the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), and the pulvinar. –NIH
Researchers have insisted that more studies need to be done and it’s worth looking into such as how the brain sensory system differs from those who were blind at birth. The provider can also note if someone was born blind and DO have psychosis/schizophrenia, then definitely rule out other causes.
Additional Information and References
- Autistic Brains Function Oppositely to Psychotic One’s First direct brain imaging confirms the diametric model by Psychology Today
- Being Born Blind Appears to Somehow Protect People From Getting Schizophrenia by Science Alert
- Blindness and Schizophrenia: The Exception Proves the Rule Congenital cortical—but not peripheral—blindness protects against schizophrenia by Psychology Today
- Kanat-Maymon, Yaniv & Ben-David, Boaz. (2019). Small numbers are not predictive: Congenital blindness may or may not be protective for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. 209. 10.1016/j.schres.2019.04.023.
- People Born Blind Are Mysteriously Protected From Schizophrenia by Vice
- Leivada, E., & Boeckx, C. (2014). Schizophrenia and cortical blindness: protective effects and implications for language. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8, 940. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00940
- Schizophrenia & About Psychosis
