 |
|
Introduction
When I think of a hereditary gene, I often think of physical appearances such as eye and hair color. If both parents of a child have brown eyes and brown hair, then there is a particularly good chance that the child will follow suit. To my surprise, this same process is shown in the psychiatric disorder, schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a disorder that Merriam-Webster describes as, “a mental illness that is characterized by disturbances in thought (such as delusions), perception (such as hallucinations), and behavior (such as disorganized speech or catatonic behavior), by a loss of emotional responsiveness and extreme apathy, and by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life.” Genetics play a crucial role in the development for Schizophrenia. If an individual has a sibling or parent with the disorder, their probability of being diagnosed with the disease rise from one to ten percent. With this knowledge it is evident that there is something going on within the genetic makeup.
What Are the Contributing Genes?
Schizophrenia has been under extensive research for a long period of time. Due to the complications that are involved with this disorder, researchers have and still are having a tough time to determine the site where gene mutations are taking place. Although the disease is severely complicated, advancements in technology have allowed for bits of new information. The breach of this new information started with a study that looked at the genetic makeup of 186 Irish pedigrees. These pedigrees all had one thing in common right off the bat and that was Schizophrenia. After scans, researchers had noticed a vulnerable location in which there was activity. This activity was occurring on chromosome 6p.
The findings that the early Irish studied provided opened for a more detailed and extensive research. Scientist who were curious about this disorder were given a target to concentrate on. Studies would continue to become more and more in hopes to gain more knowledge on this complex disease. Results started to support that chromosome 6p was in fact a location with a lot of gene activity for Schizophrenia. Researchers however have not been able to target which gene or genes are accounting for this genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia.
What’s Next?
Chromosome 6p has now been a “hot-spot” for schizophrenia research. Researchers are continuing to try and pinpoint certain genes, but progress is not coming as fast as they would like. The goal would be to eventually identify these genes which would allow for future treatments and the possible deletion of the disease. Although this would be ideal, the complexity of Schizophrenia will not be allowing for that to happen anytime soon.
Conclusion
As one can tell, schizophrenia is an overly complicated disease. This complication causes many unknowns with treatments and identifications for the disease. Studies can prove that there is a hereditary gene or genes associated with the disorder but pinpointing these genes has been impossible to date. One positive note that studies did show at least gives research an area to study and that is within the 6p chromosome. Continuing with this data it is in hopes that one day we will be able to unravel this mysterious disorder.
