Schizophrenia neurodevelopmental hypothesis

The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia posits that the disorder is due to a subtle defect in prenatal brain development but is not clinically manifest until many years later (Murray and Lewis, 1987 Weinberger, 1987). This theory has two essential components a presumption of developmental neuropathology and an expectation that this developmental neuropathology results in a pattern of brain malfunction which ultimately produces the symptoms of schizophrenia. 

What potential roles could synaptic vesicle associated proteins have in the context of two major theories regarding the etiology of schizophrenia, namely the synaptic hypothesis and the neurodevelopmental hypothesis ... 

Horrobin DF. 1998. The membrane phospholipid hypothesis as a biochemical basis for the neurodevelopmental concept of schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 30 193-208. 

McClure RK, Lieverman JA. Neurodevelopmental and neurodegener-ative hypothesis of schizophrenia A review and critique. Curr Opin Psychiatry 2003 16(Suppl 2) S15-S28. 

Neurodevelopmental models of schizophrenia have for the most part emphasized prenatal brain development, focusing on effects that may alter gene expression.15 For example, according to one idea, individuals with schizophrenia inherit genes that cause structural brain deviations that may be compounded by early environmental impact.16 Much of the focus of this hypothesis has been on postnatal impact, such as stress, that changes brain chemistry, but the idea can also accommodate a focus on prenatal impact. 

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