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Genes, environment and schizophrenia

Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Harvard School of Public Health and Psychiatry Service Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

WILLIAM S. STONE, PhD

Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Boston, Massachusetts

STEPHEN V. FARAONE, PhD

Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Psychiatric Service Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence: Dr Ming T. Tsuang, Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 74 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Tel: +1 617 734 6546; fax: +1 617 734 7915; e-mail: ming_tsuang{at}hms.harvard.edu

Declaration of interest None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

ABSTRACT

Background Data from family, twin and adoption studies show over whelming evidence of a substantial genetic component in schizophrenia and although molecular genetic studies have been more difficult to replicate, recent improvements in technology have resulted in the implication of genes at several chromosomal loci. Nevertheless, it remains clear that environmental factors both add to and interact with genetic factors to produce the disorder.

Aims To incorporate genetic and environmental risk factors into a neurodevelopmental model in order to conceptualise the liability to schizophrenia.

Method A representative selection of the literature related to this issue is reviewed, together with a reformulation of Meehl's term ‘schizotaxia’ to describe the liability to the disorder.

Results The literature supports a multi-factorial view of the liability to schizophrenia, which includes both genetic and environmental components.

Conclusions Schizotaxia provides a useful way to conceptualise both the liability for schizophrenia, and also the development of treatment strategies aimed at the eventual prevention of the illness.

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