Summary
Schizophrenia has been widely believed to be a genetic disorder, but despite extensive studies using various approaches, no causal genes have been identified. Instead, almost 300 single nucleotide polymorphisms have been associated with altered risks of developing the disorder. Observers are increasingly questioning whether schizophrenia is strictly a genetic disorder. Psychiatric genetics is no longer (or not simply) focused on identifying genes that cause schizophrenia (or other disorders) but on using findings from genetics to better understand mechanisms of psychopathology. Genetic associations support the idea of the involvement of complement pathways and synaptic pruning. [!note]
Schizophrenia has been widely believed to be a genetic disorder, but despite extensive studies using various approaches, no causal genes have been identified. Instead, almost 300 single nucleotide polymorphisms have been associated with altered risks of developing the disorder. Observers are increasingly questioning whether schizophrenia is strictly a genetic disorder. Psychiatric genetics is no longer (or not simply) focused on identifying genes that cause schizophrenia (or other disorders) but on using findings from genetics to better understand mechanisms of psychopathology. Genetic associations support the idea of the involvement of complement pathways and synaptic pruning.
Highlights
id664598619
Increasingly, observers question whether schizophrenia is strictly a genetic disorder. Beginning in 1996 NIMH began shifting its research resources from clinical studies to basic research based on the promise of the Human Genome Project. Consequently, three decades later NIMH’s genetics investment has yielded almost nothing clinically useful for individuals currently affected. It is time to review NIMH’s schizophrenia research portfolio
id664599344
The bulk of research evidence suggests that genetics plays a role in the etiology and that genetic alterations are causally relevant for some patients, but genetic factors appear to be neither necessary nor sufficient for the development of schizophrenia, which makes it difficult to justify schizophrenia as primarily a “genetic disorder” (or even primarily a disorder of gene-environment interactions).
id664600516
Psychiatric symptoms appear to be dimensionally distributed in populations, such that psychiatric syndromes are better understood as extremes on continua. And categories such as schizophrenia likely represent the intersection of multiple continua.