What’s it like to live with schizophrenia? How well do existing medications work? Schizophrenia affects more than 21 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation. Sufferers commonly experience delusions, hallucinations, cognitive issues leading to problems in decision-making in daily life, loss of self-esteem and withdrawal from society. Current treatment focuses on antipsychotic drugs, with additional psychosocialtherapy in some cases. The drugs used to treat schizophrenia have changed little in the last 50 years. Autifony Therapeutics, which specialises in developing new drugs to treat serious disorders of the central nervous system, is developing a promising new drug, which could treat schizophrenia with fewer side effects. Autifony’s drug AUT00206 targets neurons in the brain that are important for cognitive function. Studies have shown that the ability of these neurons to regulate brain activity is degraded in people with schizophrenia. Chief Executive Dr Charles Large say: “If our drug does prove effective it could be revolutionary. It would enable patients to get back to a level of functioning potentially compatible with holding down a job and living independently. From what we have seen already, we anticipate that this would be with relatively low side-effects.” Here, ‘Rich’ talks about what it’s like to live with Schizophrenia and his experiences of existing medications.
