Its been noted for the past decade or so that there is some (approximately 5% to 7%) shrinkage in the brains of people who have schizophrenia, most notably in the gray matter, which is an important part structures in the brain’s amygdala, hippocampus and parahippocampus, which are all involved in memory storage and retrieval memory storage and retrieval.

This finding has been documented in a number of studies, but it wasn’t clear what was behind the loss of brain matter. Some studies have indicated that a small percentage (less than 1%) might be due to medications but other research did not show that. Groups that are anti-medications jumped on this data to say that it was the medications that were causing the damage.

Now results from a new study has been released by Yale University and it shows that that brain loss is most likely due to, or concurrent with, inflammation in the brain and closely associated with psychotic episodes.

So, rather than suggesting that medications are the problem, it actually indicates that medications may be part of the solution – because its well documented that people who have schizophrenia are much more likely to suffer from relapses and recurrences of the “positive symptoms” of schizophrenia (the voices, delusions, etc.) that are very stressful to the person and that cause huge impacts on their life and those around them.