New Haven, Conn. -- A drug that lowers brain levels of the
chemical glutamate -- one of the neurotransmitters responsible
for relaying messages between neurons -- can reverse symptoms of
a rat model of schizophrenia without apparent side effects,
according to a Yale University School of Medicine study. The
research, published in the Aug. 28 issue of the journal Science,
suggests a possible new class of medications that could be
effective in treating schizophrenia and other psychiatric
disorders, such as addiction, which are thought to be associated
with abnormal glutamate-mediated neurotransmission. The study
was conduced by Bita Moghaddam, associate professor of
psychiatry and neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine, and
research associate Barbara W. Adams. Rats under the influence of
PCP, a hallucinogen also known as "angel dust" that causes
schizophrenia-like symptoms in healthy people, developed
symptoms such as frantic running, incessant head-rolling, and
disturbances in memory and attention that are tho