Genetics doesn’t account for all schizophrenia cases

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: July 5, 2009

WASHINGTON — A handful of typos in a mysterious region of the human genetic code are connected to a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia, recent studies show.

In a first-of-its-kind look at the genetic elements of schizophrenia, a massive international effort focused on seven spots of genetic variation. Dozens of scientists then published three papers from the effort in the journal Nature. Those genetic blips account for at most one-third of genetically caused schizophrenia.

Based on studies of identical twins, scientists figure that only about half of schizophrenia is inherited with the rest having other causes.

What the studies show more than anything else is that schizophrenia doesn’t all have a single cause based in the genes.

It is more like a massive jigsaw puzzle and researchers just found a few end pieces, said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which financed much of the work.

Researchers looked at the genomes of more than 50,000 people, some with schizophrenia and some who didn’t have it.