Schizophrenia is a chronic, incurable mental disease. This disordered thinking process includes delusions, hallucinations, paranoia and a host of other frightening events occurring within the diseased mind. According to the Betty Hardwick Center, approximately 1 percent of the global population suffers from schizophrenia, and another 100,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. These new diagnoses are showing up mostly in teenagers between the ages of 16 and 25 years. Males seem to reach a peak age for onset between 18 and 25 years old, while females have two peak onset periods between the ages of 25 and 30 years old, and somewhere around 40 years.
Genetic Heritability
Schizophrenia is a genetic disorder, meaning that it typically runs in families. This disorder can be passed on in first-line relatives (i.e., mother, father, brother, sister), which accounts for about 10 percent of cases. In those with a schizophrenia in second-line family members (i.e., aunts, uncles, cousins), there is a slight chance of this disorder recurring in a skipped generation. However, identical twins have the highest likelihood of developing the disorder when the other sibling twin is also diagnosed. They have a 40 to 65 percent chance of becoming schizophrenic. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, these aforementioned statistics and decades of research indicate that given the right environmental triggers, paired with genetic heritability, questions concerning the onset of the disease, and difficulty in treating it, could be answered.
Brain Development
Contrary to myth, schizophrenics do not have fewer brain cells or lower intelligence. The size of brain cells in a schizophrenic is generally smaller, but many schizophrenics show tremendous intelligence. What occurs in the mind begins in neurodevelopment--or the fetal development of the brain. Genetic information is passed from parents to the child, creating the heritability or "genetic predisposition" of schizophrenia. According to Modern Psychiatry, this disease is not neurodegenerative either--as seen with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. Rather, the brain is structurally different by way of a 30 to 50 percent reduction in certain proteins, as well as differences in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampal regions. Within these processing regions of the brain, neuro-development posits that there exists a bilateral cortical folding (like wrinkles) leading to improper activation and deactivation of neurotransmitters, and left-hemisphere dysfunction.
New Findings on Environmental Conditions
More and more theorists are suggesting that there is an undeniable connection between genetic predisposition for schizophrenia and urban environmental conditions. Ten empirical studies have already provided valuable information relevant to one-third of all schizophrenic cases. According to the "Oxford Journal Schizophrenia Bulletin," child and adolescent development hinges on genetic make-up and added environmental elements from birth experience to poverty. This being said, urban areas have a higher incidence of not only schizophrenia, but numerous other psychotic disorders as well.
References
- Betty Hardwick Center: "Statistical Prevalence of Schizophrenia"; Nemade PhD, R & Dombeck PhD, M; 2010
- National Institute of Mental Health: "What causes schizophrenia?"; Sep 2009
- Modern Psychiatry: "Biochemistry"; Radecki MD JD, T; 2010
- Neurodevelopment: "Schizophrenia and Neurodevelopment"; 2010
- "Oxford Journal": Schizophrenia Bulletin, Schizophrenia & Urbanicity: A Major Environmental Influence-Conditional on Genetic Risk; Krabbendam, L & van Os, J; Sep 2005
