Study On Schizophrenia Points To Thousands Of Genes
Three interrelated, international studies examining the genetic aspects of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have found some 30,000 gene variations that may contribute to the mental illnesses. Researchers say the data paints a far more complex picture of the diseases””as well as treatment and diagnosis””than had been previously understood.
The three research projects examined DNA samples from a total of 10,000 people with schizophrenia and another 20,000 without. The results showed some 30,000 different variations of genes known to be connected with the illness.
The London Institute of Psychiatry’s Mick O’Donovan, one of the researchers involved with the study, described the results as a massive connect-the-dots picture, where scientists will now have to go about the painstaking and arduous task of linking up the thousands of genetic variations with their various interactions to tease out their diverse effects in producing the illness.
“But we don’t even have numbers on them yet so we don’t know in what order to connect them up,” added O’Donovan.
Though the researchers say that the vast scope of the study has produced a tremendous amount of essential data for the field of genetic research into mental diseases, they maintain that they are still a long way from being able to predict an individual’s specific risk of developing the disease.
“We are far away from being able to tell a family: ‘Your child will develop schizophrenia’ or not,” said Pablo Gejman of North Shore University Health System Research Institute in Evanston, Illinois, one of the institutes participating in the study.
Schizophrenia is characterized by abnormalities in the patient’s ability to perceive or express reality. Distortions in perception have been known to affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, though the most common manifestations of the disease are auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking. Most patients suffering from the disease experience significant social or occupational dysfunction.
Symptoms of the disease usually begin to appear in young adulthood, affecting roughly one out of every 120 people. While several antipsychotic drugs, like Seroquel and Zyprexa, have shown some success in ameliorating the symptoms associated with schizophrenia, they do not represent a cure for the illness and are notorious for their side-effects.
Another significant observation made by the study was the similarity of genetic patterns between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Researchers say the data presents a major challenge for the dominant paradigm in psychiatric treatment and research which currently deals with the two disorders as distinct and largely unrelated diseases.
“Discoveries such as these are crucial for teasing out the biology of the disease making it possible for us to begin to develop drugs targeting the underlying causes and not just the symptoms of the disease,” explained co-author of one of the studies Kari Stefansson, chief executive of Decode Genetics of Iceland.
The new research builds upon and further corroborates studies done in recent years which have pointed to a polygenetic basis of inheritance for schizophrenia rather than a inheritance model that points to a single, crucially important gene.
While the daunting task of interpreting the flood of new information has served to counterbalance enthusiasm about the breakthrough research, Edward Scolnick of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston is optimistic about the future of research in the field, saying that the results do have the potential “help improve the diagnostic and therapeutic options for patients.”
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