GENEVA A University of Geneva study carried out in hospitals in the Swiss city suggests why schizophrenia and apathy go hand in hand. The study, published in the journal Brain, suggests several potential treatments, including brain stimulation and targeted psychotherapy. Schizophrenia, a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple symptoms, affects up to 1% of the population.
One of the most common symptoms, and one for which there is no treatment, is apathy and lack of motivation, according to the study. It compared neural activation during a reward-based game, in a study carried out by a team from the University of Geneva and the University Hospitals of Geneva. They collaborated with researchers from the non-governmental group Charite Berlin, deciphering the neural bases of this schizophrenia.
The brains of people who have schizophrenia are unable to discriminate between different levels of reward in a sufficiently subtle way, hampering their motivation to undertake everyday tasks, it said. The scientists enrolled 152 volunteers – 86 people who have schizophrenia and 66 controls of similar age and gender – to play a reward game in an MRI scanner to observe the activation of their brain regions. Lack of motivation "Lack of motivation is at the root of the difficulties encountered by people suffering from schizophrenia in pursuing their studies, holding down a job, or engaging in social contacts," said Geneva Hospitals and University psychiatry professor Stefan Ka.
