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 While the results do not have an immediate effect on those living
with the psychiatric disorder, one of the study’s authors said they
open areas of research that had not seen advances in recent years.
"The exciting thing about having little openings is it gives you a
place to dig and make big openings,” said Steve McCarroll, director
of genetics for the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the
Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
McCarroll is part of the Schizophrenia Working Group of the
Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, which published the study in the
journal Nature.
About 1 percent of Americans have schizophrenia, according to the
National Institutes of Health. The disorder’s symptoms, which
include hallucinations and delusions, often begin between people’s
teenage years and their late-20s. It often includes psychotic
experiences, such as hearing voices or delusions.
While the exact cause is unknown, research to date suggests a
combination of physical, genetic, psychological and environmental
factors can make people more likely to develop it.
Researchers have long believed genetics play an important role in a
person’s schizophrenia risk, because about 10 percent of those with
a parent or sibling living with schizophrenia also have the
disorder.
In the new study, the researchers identified 108 locations on the
human genome that are tied to schizophrenia risk by comparing the
genomes of more than 80,000 people with and without the disorder.
“Every one of us has dozens of these variants,” McCarroll said.
“Schizophrenia patients on average have more than unaffected
individuals but that’s only true on average, not every individual
case.”
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Of those 108 locations, the researchers write that 83 had not been
previously linked to schizophrenia.
Some of the genes found to be linked to schizophrenia risk include
those that have also been tied to how brain cells communicate with
each other and to learning and memory.
The new findings support the use of some existing treatments for the
symptoms of schizophrenia and researchers hope they may point to
other more comprehensive treatments.
“The goal is obviously to understand the disease process and develop
treatments,” said Dr. Steve Hyman, director of the Stanley Center.
(Reporting by Andrew Seaman in New York; Editing by Bill Trott)
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