Oxidatively Stressed: Investigating how glutathione concentrations relate to negative symptoms and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia

There are still minimal treatment options for the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. Oxidative stress is a potential contributing factor to the pathology of schizophrenia. For example, glutathione is an antioxidant which has been shown to be reduced in individuals with schizophrenia. The present thesis investigated the role of glutathione in chronic, treatment resistant schizophrenia through the measurement of cortical glutathione in the brain via magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, this thesis provided meta-analytic evidence that antioxidant supplementation may help reduce negative symptoms and improve cognition in schizophrenia.