Scientists at Eli Lilly say the first human trial of a new schizophrenia drug shows promise for sufferers of the debilitating mental illness. There are already many drugs which are designed to treat schizophrenia but this latest drug differs in that unlike all other antipsychotics it targets the glutamate receptors in the brain rather than dopamine. The scientists say patients treated with the new drug ‘LY2140023’ showed improvements in symptoms and suffered fewer side effects. Schizophrenia affects around 1% of the population and is a chronic mental illness. The main symptoms are hallucinations (hearing voices), delusions (a firm belief in something that isn’t true) and changes in outlook and personality. Schizophrenia can manifest itself in positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder), and in negative symptoms such as social withdrawal, apathy and emotional blunting with symptoms such as psychomotor retardation, lack of insight, poor attention and impulse control. The antipsychotic drugs currently used to alleviate these symptoms can have serious side effects such a violent tremor, similar to that experienced by Parkinson’s disease sufferers; for some, the side effects are so distressing that they often stop taking the medication and run the risk of a […]