[Lara]

Please do not watch these programmes if you are feeling particularly fragile.



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http://www.abc.net.au/austory/specia...at/default.htm

Full programme in INDEX

04/05/2009
Friday's Child

At 29, Charmaine was a rising star who seemed to have everything to live for, a brilliant career and secret plans to marry her boyfriend on her 30th birthday.

But in late 2007 she died in the most unexpected and devastating way, driving to a cliff top in Sydney's eastern suburbs and jumping to her death.

She had been receiving treatment for depression and her family said she had recently changed her medication.

Her family, partner and close friends spoke for the first time last year in an attempt to try and make sense of what happened and in the hope that Charmaine's story may help others.

[Lara]

http://www.abc.net.au/austory/
Full Programme in INDEX

11/05/2009

Professor Cyndi Shannon Weickert once dreamed of being a famous chef until her twin brother Scott Shannon was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his teens.

After witnessing the devastating symptoms of delusions and hallucinations first-hand in the person she loved the most, Cyndi Shannon Weikert embarked on a life mission to find a cure.

Now a world-leading neurobiologist, she moved from America to Australia when she was invited to lead a top schizophrenia research program in Sydney two years ago.

The team has since discovered that mutations in a particular estrogen gene are linked to schizophrenia. Clinical drug trials on a drug to regulate brain estrogen will start in July.