Ein häufig verschriebenes Antibiotikum könnte dazu beitragen, das Risiko zu verringern, dass einige junge Menschen an Schizophrenie erkranken. Jugendliche, die mit Doxycyclin behandelt wurden, entwickelten im Erwachsenenalter deutlich seltener eine Schizophrenie. Dies unterstreicht das Potenzial, ein bestehendes, weit verbreitetes Medikament präventiv umzuwidmen.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240958

From the linked article:

Common antibiotic may reduce schizophrenia risk

A **commonly prescribed antibiotic could help reduce the risk of some young people developing schizophrenia**, new research suggests.

Experts found that patients of **adolescent mental health services who were treated with the antibiotic doxycycline were significantly less likely to go on to develop schizophrenia in adulthood** compared with patients treated with other antibiotics.

Experts say the findings **highlight the potential to repurpose an existing, widely used medication as a preventive** intervention for severe mental illness.

The team analysed data from more than 56,000 adolescents attending mental health services who had been prescribed antibiotics. They found that those treated with doxycycline had a 30–35 per cent lower risk of developing schizophrenia than peers who received other antibiotics.

The researchers hypothesised that the protective effect could be linked to doxycycline’s impact on inflammation and brain development.