Schizophrenia Risk Found in Faulty Genetic Code, Researchers Say

Schizophrenia, the devastating psychiatric condition that causes hallucinations, odd behaviors, and delusions, appears to be caused at least in part by a few errors in a single area of human genetic code, new research says.

A recently completed series of international studies concluded that a handful of hiccups in the same section of genetic code are to blame for nearly one in three cases of schizophrenia and that about half of all schizophrenia is inherited.

As many as 2.4 million American adults, just over one percent of the total U.S. population, have schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is caused by many factors, including genetics and DNA abnormalities, according to researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health, which sponsored most of the new work.

Medical researchers examined 50,000 people, some of whom had schizophrenia and some of whom did not. The studies were published in today’s issue of the journal Nature and while they did not provide any breakthrough new findings into the mysterious disorder of schizophrenia, scientists did get a better understanding of the biology of the disease, according to a HealthDay report.

Small Increase in Risk Noted

The increased risk of schizophrenia identified in the research is relatively small – about 15 to 25 percent above the normal rate of about one in 100 people who develop the disorder. Also, all but one of the variations in the genetic code are commonly found in many humans, so detecting it does not necessarily mean an increased risk of schizophrenia.

Still, researchers were thrilled with their findings that five of the seven genetic variations linked to an increased schizophrenia risk were located in the same area of the genome also related to Type 1 diabetes and other immune disorders. The section of DNA is not widely understood and is called “the Bermuda Triangle of the human genome,” one researcher said.

No related posts.