Danish researchers help crack key to schizophrenia

Nearly 100 years after the Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugene Bleuler recognised the signs of the mental illness schizophrenia, a team of international scientists have come one step closer to unlocking the mystery behind it.

The European team, including Danish experts from the Research Institute of Biology Psychiatry, found three distinct genetic markers that can lead to schizophrenia.

‘Schizophrenia has long been surrounded by many myths, such as it was a natural reaction to an ill society,’ team member Thomas Werge told TV2 news. ‘For 20 to 30 years we have known that schizophrenia was largely a genetic condition. However the myths continued and that’s why we are now relieved to finally have documented specific genetic changes that can indicate a greater risk for a person to develop schizophrenia.’

The study found that three different mutations can spontaneously occur, which damage large parts of chromosome 1 or 15. The different levels of schizophrenia can be attributed to the different levels of damage. The same mutations have previously been found in some people suffering from autism.

The results explain why schizophrenia can occur spontaneously occur in families that have no history of the illness and also those who inherit the disease. The mutations seem to occur during the foetal stages of a pregnancy.

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Danish researchers help crack key to schizophrenia
The Copenhagen Post