Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Schizophrenia Is Not One Single Disease, But Eight Genetically Different Diseases


            Schizophrenia is rare and often extremely misunderstood. Most people believe that schizophrenia is a single disease in which its victims only experience hallucinations and voices in their minds. In this article scientists determine that there are in fact eight genetically different diseases, each causing their own symptoms, which are identified as schizophrenia. It was well known that 80% of the risk of schizophrenia is from heredity however scientists spent much of their time trying to identify a single gene, or multiple independent genes, that might be linked to schizophrenia.
This study found that individual genes had weak risks of causing schizophrenia. Groups of genes interacting together did however have high risks (between 70% and 100% risk) of causing one of the eight forms of schizophrenia. Just over four thousand diagnosed schizophrenic patients and around three thousand healthy individuals were analyzed in order to find the groups of genes that affected the risk of schizophrenia. Forty-two gene groups were identified to have an affect on the risk of schizophrenia in an assortment of ways. In patients who did experience hallucinations and delirium the presence of a specific group of genes could predict the onset of schizophrenia to a 95% certainty. Individuals with incongruent speech and disorganized behaviors are associated with a group of genes that leads to 100% risk of schizophrenia.
            This article is excruciatingly important in understanding, diagnosing, and treating schizophrenia. Localized treatments may become available to patient suffering from any given form of schizophrenia, and schizophrenia can be predicted and treated as early as possible. Schizophrenia is a rare disease as it is, affecting only 1% of the population however to that 1% it can negatively impact an individual’s life immensely.  This article offers hope for the future of treating schizophrenia, all eight diseases of it.


2 comments:

  1. Schizophrenia in itself is itself is a scary disease to have. Not being able to tell whether something is real or not real is terrifying. The fact that it is a hereditary but somewhat able to be detected is both good and bad since there is hope for a treatment for all eight different forms. I agree with you that affected individuals will have a much harder and possibly stressful life compared to the other 99% of the population that does not suffer from schizophrenia.

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  2. I think that this is extremely interesting because it hints at a way to help people who desperately need help. Schizophrenia has actually affected a few members of my family, one of them being my aunt. She hasn't found a treatment that has worked, and every few months becomes catatonic. Maybe with this she'll find a way to live a normal life, which would be amazing!

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