Schizophrenia complex genetics

Schizophrenia is a disorder of complex genetics. Adoption, twin and family studies carried out over the last 40 years have provided compelling evidence for the heri-tability of schizophrenia [4]. Meta-analysis of the twin... 

Gottesman II. 1994. Complications to the complex inheritance of schizophrenia. Clin Genet 46 116-123. 

Because of the brain s complexity, physicians and researchers have not made as much progress as they would like in efforts to understand disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Scientists have been studying schizophrenia and related illnesses since before Bleuler s time, but as yet no one knows what causes schizophrenia. The symptoms of the disease usually make their initial appearance early in the patient s life. Since schizophrenia runs in families, there is a genetic component to the disease. It is possible that problems arise in the early stages of development, possibly due to faulty genes or perhaps in part due to exposure to environmental toxins, which fester imtil the disease arises in yoimg adulthood. 

Many researchers have come to believe that schizophrenia is a complex disease, possibly with a number of different causes or courses. PET studies of schizophrenia have found possible contributions of other receptors, including the dopamine D receptor as well as receptors for other neurotransmitters such as glutamate. Genetic researchers are searching for the genes involved in the expression and regulation of these receptors, any or all of which may be involved in some number of patients. 

Schizophrenia remains a multifaceted disorder, with all evidence of its onset and etiology pointing to a complex interplay of genetic, environmental and developmental factors. 

Because of its genetic complexity and uncertain etiology, schizophrenia, like so many neu-ropsychiatricdisorders, has resisted the development of suitable animal models. Early progress in the field was hampered because of the prevailing belief that schizophrenia was a social or psychological disorder rather than a neurodevelopmental brain disorder. 

---