Daniel Allen has just the kind of soft-spoken voice you expect of a psychologist. He originally thought he'd be a counselor — "It's a cliche to say, but I chose psychology because I wanted to help people." But in graduate school his fascination with how the brain works took hold and he found another way to help people. He's now director of the UNLV Neuropsychology Research Program and is garnering national awards for his research, much of which focuses on people with schizophrenia. He hopes his work will lead to medications and rehabilitation techniques that target the specific parts of the brain affected by the debilitating mental disorder. At the same time he oversees the work of 11 doctoral candidates and teaches testing and abnormal psychology classes.
- The heartbreaking thing about schizophrenia is that it afflicts people who seem to be developing normally. It hits them just when they're starting their lives.
- As many as 10 percent of those with schizophrenia fully recover and 30 percent need institutionalization. The rest, we believe, can lead productive lives with proper support and treatment.
- It can be hard to see the individual behind the mental illness. You have to remember there's a person in there. They have goals and aspirations. They have all the elements of humanity.
- Most people think of schizophrenia as having a split personality. The word actually comes from the thought that the mind is splitting from reality, not into personalities.
- Those with schizophrenia may make general things very personal. They'll see an invention on TV and have a sense they thought of the idea, so they'll rationalize that someone has stolen the idea out of their heads. They'll see their neighbor driving to work and somehow interpret that as the government spying on them. Of course, it's only a delusion if the FBI really isn't spying on you.
- About the only time you see a person with schizophrenia on TV is when they have committed a crime, so people often think that schizophrenia equals danger. As it turns out, only a small percentage actually commit violence.
- A Beautiful Mind was an interesting movie because it allowed the general public to see a person with schizophrenia who was not a violent criminal. If you have seen the movie, you can imagine how terrifying the disorder is for people who aren't geniuses and who don't have people to support them.
- Unlike with cancer and heart disease, the person with schizophrenia deals with their problem for decades because it starts at a young age. Developing treatment and support structures is not only the humane thing to do, but it's also cheaper for society to help them lead productive lives than it is to treat them as criminals.
- In the 1950s, there was a big treatment breakthrough with the introduction of chlorpromazine. As a result there was this huge discharge from mental institutions. The idea was that the funds for the institutions would be transferred to communitysupport programs. But the money didn't follow the patients.
- Nevada is not a good state in which to develop a mental health problem. The funding for services historically has been very low.
- Las Vegas ERs often have six-hour waits in part because patients with mental health needs have had nowhere else to go. But, we are making progress. The new mental health hospital and the new VA hospital will help. And there's now a mental health court that enables judges to mandate treatment rather than community service or jail time.
- Schizophrenia is clearly genetically linked, but other factors must play a role, too. If one identical twin has it, the other has a 50 percent chance of developing it. That's high, but the amazing thing is that it's not 100 percent — they have the exact same DNA and were raised more or less the same. So what sets the disorder off in one but not the other?
- Medicines tend to treat the most visible symptoms — bizarre behaviors, like talking to people who aren't there, the things that scare other people. But for those with schizophrenia, it's the things that aren't there — like the ability to negotiate social environments — that so dramatically affect their ability to be productive individuals.
- One of the key things humans do is accurately interpret the emotions of others. A schizophrenic person can't seem to do that. If they can't distinguish between sarcasm and a compliment when someone says "Good job," they can't respond appropriately.
- In our lab, we're trying to figure out just where the breakdown happens. Is it because they can't pick up on the visual cues or the auditory cues, or is the problem with the integration of the two?
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) lets you see exactly what part of the brain is active when you give someone with schizophrenia a task compared to the "normal" population. I hope to work with other units on campus to bring an fMRI here. In brain research, it's "the bomb."
- Of course, we all misperceive reality at times. I ask my intro to psychology students to raise their hands if they are better-thanaverage drivers. Most of them do. By definition, they can't all be better-than-average.
- And sometimes those with mental disorders have more accurate perceptions. Depressed people tend to perceive things more accurately than happy people. Happy people tend to be overly optimistic; they think things are better than they really are. It's called the sadder but wiser effect.
