Many people wonder whether certain psychiatric disorders are genetic.
In this post, let us talk about schizophrenia. As soon as a person is
diagnosed with any disorder, the first and the foremost question that
comes to the mind of the patient or anyone else around is: is this
problem hereditary? How did it occur? Such questions are quite natural
as anyone would be interested to know about the roots of a problem so
that the origin could be known. Frankly speaking, scientists opine that
both genes and environmental factors are involved. But still, genes
alone cannot cause schizophrenia though hereditary reasons behind the
disorder do exist. This subject tends to get complex as we cannot narrow
down one single reason. Added to the genetic factor, the component of
environmental factor coexists to cause a disorder like schizophrenia.
Scientists
have tried a lot to find the schizophrenic gene, but what they found
out till now is the fact that this disorder passes from one another in
families but genes cannot take the entire blame. Why is that so? Well, a
child of a parent suffering from schizophrenia has only 6% of risk
which is quite less. Here is a table which shows you the approximate
risk percentage if someone in your family tree is schizophrenic:
- Twins: 47-48%
- Fraternal-twins: 16-17%
- Children: 12-13%
- Siblings: 9-10%
- Half-siblings: 6-7%
- Grandchildren: 5-6%
- Nephews/nieces: 4-5%
- First cousins/aunts/uncles: 2-3%
Notice
a fact here. Though identical twins are 100% identical, the risk
percentage is only 48%. This means that if one of the twins suffers from
schizophrenia, it doesn’t mean that the other inevitably has to suffer
as the risk is only 48%. Now, the environmental factor comes into the
picture. When genes decide half of the risk, the rest of the story is
decided by environmental factors. Though a person shares very less risk
through genetic factors, he or she may still suffer schizophrenia if the
environmental factors are worse. Some of those environmental aspects
are:
- Drug addiction
- Birth complications
- High stress and anxiety
- Chemical exposure when the mother is pregnant
This
way, there are many factors which may result as schizophrenia. Though
scientists are trying very hard to find out one single gene to attach
the cause, they haven’t been able to do so because there are thousands
of genes which cause mutations that cause slight damage to the brain
structure which is too delicate. Singling out a gene had been tough but
may be in the near future scientists may successfully find out more
about the genetic aspect. As the genetic part is not much in the
patient’s hands, it is important to control the environmental factors as
much as possible so that the damage could be reduced. And on the top of
it, it is good to follow all steps recommended by the clinician so that
symptoms can come to a manageable level sooner or later. Knowing
answers to many unanswered questions had been the target of scientists
but we need to still wait for a day to completely understand
schizophrenia and its permanent cure.