Schizophrenia is inherited: mechanism of inheritance and risks

Schizophrenia is one of the most complex psychiatric pathologies, the complexity of which is due to its unclear etiology and unpredictable course. The exact reasons for its occurrence are unknown. Scientists only talk about factors that increase the likelihood of its development. Heredity is one of them. Let's find out whether schizophrenia is really inherited and how it happens.

Scientists' opinions

In the literature on schizophrenia, there are different data regarding its causes. There are even separate theories within the framework of which scientists conduct their research and try to confirm or refute certain hypotheses. Some of them:

Dopamine. Increased production of dopamine, melatonin and serotonin leads to delusions and hallucinations in a person.
Infectious. Chronic viral diseases, as well as streptococcal, staphylococcal and tuberculosis infections, reduce immunity and cause mental disorders.
Neurogenetic. A defect in the corpus callosum, which connects the left and right hemispheres, leads to disruption of the coordinated functioning of the brain.
Ecological. Environmental pollution negatively affects the development of the embryo, causes a lack of vitamins and ultimately increases the likelihood of developing psychiatric pathologies.

Psychoanalytic. A bad relationship with an oppressive father or a strict mother, a cold atmosphere in the family, etc. can lead to the onset of the disease.
Evolutionary. The increase in intellectual abilities due to technological progress does not coincide with the natural capabilities of the brain. Nature tries to adapt to changes, but sometimes fails.
Traumatic. Psychiatric disorders can cause various types of trauma, including postpartum and operating room trauma.
Genetic. If there is at least one person with schizophrenia in the family. others are more likely to develop it.

However, there may be disagreements within each of the listed theories. Some scientists claim the existence of 74 or even 100 genes that are responsible for schizophrenia, while other researchers are more reserved in their conclusions, believing that accurate data on this issue has yet to be revealed.

In general, doctors have found a set of genes that can affect the functioning of the brain. But it is quite difficult to draw a direct connection between them and schizophrenia. This is not the case when researchers took DNA, studied it, sorted the genes into dominant and recessive and found the exact chain that influenced the development of the disease. In any case, a conclusion about genetic causation will be an assumption, and not an exact scientific fact.

Today there are 3 main approaches to studying the hereditary factors of schizophrenia:

Genetic, necessary for studying differences in gene structure.
Pharmacogenetic, allowing the correct use of therapy, prescribing appropriate drugs and reducing side effects.
A study of genesis aimed at studying the etiology of a disease.

In addition to studies in the genetics of schizophrenia, which do not always confirm hypotheses, scientists have statistics at their disposal that indicate that genetic factors should definitely be studied.

Collective responsibility

Even the first researchers of schizophrenia noticed that the risk of getting sick is closely related to the presence of sick relatives. Attempts to establish the mechanism of inheritance of schizophrenia were made almost immediately after the rediscovery of Mendel's laws, at the very beginning of the 20th century. However, unlike many other diseases, schizophrenia did not fit into the framework of simple Mendelian models. Despite the high heritability, it was not possible to associate it with one or more genes, so by the middle of the century, the so-called. psychogenic theories of disease development. In agreement with psychoanalysis, which was extremely popular by the middle of the century, these theories explained the apparent heritability of schizophrenia not by genetics, but by characteristics of upbringing and an unhealthy atmosphere within the family. There was even such a concept as “schizophrenogenic parents.”

However, this theory, despite its popularity, did not live long. The final point on the question of whether schizophrenia is a hereditary disease was set by psychogenetic studies conducted already in the 60-70s. These were primarily twin studies, as well as studies of adopted children. The essence of twin studies is to compare the probabilities of the manifestation of a certain trait - in this case, the development of a disease - in identical and fraternal twins. Since the difference in the effects of the environment on twins does not depend on whether they are identical or fraternal, the differences in these probabilities must arise mainly from the fact that identical twins are genetically identical, and fraternal twins have, on average, only half the same gene variants.

In the case of schizophrenia, it turned out that the concordance of identical twins is more than 3 times higher than the concordance of fraternal twins: for the first it is approximately 50 percent, and for the second it is less than 15 percent. These words should be understood as follows: if you have an identical twin brother suffering from schizophrenia, then you yourself will get sick with a 50 percent probability. If you and your brother are fraternal twins, then the risk of getting sick is no more than 15 percent. Theoretical calculations, which additionally take into account the prevalence of schizophrenia in the population, estimate the contribution of heritability to the development of the disease at the level of 70-80 percent. By comparison, height and body mass index are inherited in much the same way—traits that have always been thought to be closely linked to genetics. By the way, as it turned out later, the same high heritability is characteristic of three of the other four major mental illnesses: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and autism.

The results of twin studies were fully confirmed when studying children who were born to patients with schizophrenia and were adopted in early infancy by healthy adoptive parents. It turned out that their risk of developing schizophrenia was not reduced compared to children raised by their schizophrenic parents, which clearly indicates the key role of genes in the etiology.

And here we come to one of the most mysterious features of schizophrenia. The fact is that if it is so strongly inherited and at the same time has a very negative effect on the fitness of the carrier (recall that patients with schizophrenia leave at least half as many descendants as healthy people), then how does it manage to persist in the population for at least several hundred thousand years? This contradiction, around which in many ways the main struggle between different theories takes place, is called the “evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia.”

Patrick Ellis

Until recently, it was completely unclear to scientists exactly what features of the genome of patients with schizophrenia predetermine the development of the disease. For decades, heated debates have been held not even about which genes are altered in patients with schizophrenia, but about what the general genetic “architecture” of the disease is.

This means the following. The genomes of individual people are very similar to each other, differing on average by less than 0.1 percent of nucleotides. Some of these distinctive genomic features are quite widespread in the population. Conventionally, if they occur in more than one percent of people, they can be called common variants or polymorphisms. These common variants are thought to have appeared in the human genome more than 100,000 years ago, before the first emigration from Africa of the ancestors of modern humans, so they are commonly present in most human subpopulations. Naturally, in order to exist in a significant part of the population for thousands of generations, most polymorphisms should not be too harmful for their carriers.

However, in the genome of each person there are other genetic features - younger and rarer. Most of them do not provide carriers with any advantage, so their frequency in the population, even if they are recorded, remains insignificant. Many of these traits (or mutations) have a more or less pronounced negative effect on fitness, so they are gradually removed by negative selection. Instead, as a result of a continuous mutation process, other new harmful variants appear. The combined frequency of any of the new mutations almost never exceeds 0.1 percent, and such variants are called rare.

So, by the architecture of the disease we mean which genetic variants - common or rare, having a strong phenotypic effect or only slightly increasing the risk of developing the disease - determine its appearance. It was around this issue that until recently the main debate about the genetics of schizophrenia was waged.

The only fact indisputably established by molecular genetic methods regarding the genetics of schizophrenia over the last third of the 20th century is its incredible complexity. Today it is obvious that predisposition to the disease is determined by changes in dozens of genes. Moreover, all the “genetic architectures” of schizophrenia proposed during this time can be combined into two groups: the “common disease - common variants” model (“common disease - common variants”, CV) and the “common disease - rare variants” model. - rare variants", RV). Each of the models provided its own explanations for the “evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia.”

Patrick Ellis

Statistical data

In general, schizophrenia is detected in approximately 0.5-1% of people, that is, no more than one person out of 100. As for the risks of the disease and the percentage, they are presented as follows:

1% is the first case in the family.
2% - an uncle/aunt, nephew or cousin is sick.
5% - the disease was in a great-grandmother or great-grandfather.
5% - a sibling suffers from the pathology.
10% - a brother or sister or 1st-3rd degree relatives are sick.
10% - the diagnosis was made to a grandmother or grandfather.
20% - the pathology is in the father or mother.

At the same time, the probability of developing pathology in a child from two schizophrenic parents is 45-60%. Among twins, the statistics are as follows: 13-17% for dizygotic twins, 47-48% for monozygotic twins.

As you can see, the closer the degree of relationship, the greater the risk of developing the disease. However, it is wrong to say 100% that having two parents with schizophrenia, the child will suffer from this pathology. There is a possibility, but not as high as many people believe.

So is it all hereditary or not?

“Schizophrenia is inherited,” this is what experts of the past believed. They argued: those who had relatives in their family with such a mental disorder, the illness would manifest itself sooner or later, and in the absence of such relatives, they assumed that the patient simply did not know about it.

Evidence from modern medicine refutes the fact that genes are to blame and states that only in half of cases schizophrenia is hereditary; in other cases, the disease occurs due to a persistent transformation of the genotype of the parent's germ cells and the reasons for their mutation are unknown.

Each cell of the body has 23 pairs of chromosomes and at conception, 2 copies of genes are transmitted (one from the father and mother). There is an assumption that only a few structural hereditary units have a risk of inheriting schizophrenia, but they do not have a big impact on the development of the disease. The process of disease formation not only from hereditary factors, but also from the environment:

Infectious diseases caused by viruses.
Poor nutrition of the embryo while in the womb.
Poor psychological situation in the family or at work.
Injuries to the child during childbirth.

Figures of hereditary schizophrenia

1% of the country's population has a group of mental disorders, but if parents have it, then the risk of developing the disease becomes 10 times greater. The risk of inheriting schizophrenia increases even more if second-degree relatives, for example, a grandmother or cousin, suffer from it. The peak risk is the disease of one of the homozygous twins (up to 65%).

The location of the chromosome in the gene is very important. A defect in chromosome 16 will have less destructive force on the brain than a defect in the 4th or 5th structural element of the cell nucleus

Science and schizophrenia

Californian scientists conducted a study in which stem cells from mentally ill patients were taken. They were given different levels of development, their behavior was observed, creating unusual or stressful living conditions in an unnatural way. And for good reason! The study revealed oddities in the behavior and movement of these cells, that is, several groups of proteins.

According to scientists, the experiments should help in diagnosing schizophrenia in the early stages.

Relatives of patients

According to modern genetic research, not only specific pathologies are genetically determined, but also various aspects of personality, for example, a high level of anxiety or, on the contrary, excessive calmness and shyness. A tendency toward aggression, wariness, sensitivity to criticism, and the ability to react to new circumstances may also be inherited.

Similar data can be obtained from studies of identical twins who are raised in different conditions. Even with different upbringings, common traits of character and temperament can be traced. And this even applies to the love of risk and adventure.

In general, the genetic factor plays an important role in pathologies such as schizophrenia and autism. It is also subject to close study when analyzing various affective disorders and hyperactivity. At the same time, scientists find not only behavioral similarities, but also biochemical and immunological ones.

This means that the blood composition, the number of lymphocytes and other biological indicators in patients with schizophrenia largely coincide with similar data in their relatives, even if the latter do not have psychiatric disorders.

Scientists suggest considering 3 categories of relatives who have patients with schizophrenia in their family:

People with schizoid traits - isolation, loneliness, focus on the internal rather than the external world.
Persons with schizoid features and severe emotional defects.
Individuals with schizoid traits with affective disorders (bipolar phase change, seasonal depression, etc.).

Statistics show that about 20-30% of first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia complain of certain symptoms. In this case, there is no diagnosis, and therefore they talk about so-called “spectral disorders”. The symptoms are quite weak and more indicative of isolation, vulnerability and low emotional intelligence. They are also observed in many schizophrenics, especially before the onset of an attack.

Risk of schizophrenia in children of healthy parents

In recent decades, researchers in the field of genetics of mental disorders have come to the conclusion that the hereditary factor is not the leading one. Therefore, it is impossible to answer the question of whether schizophrenia is inherited using only a genetic factor, without taking into account many others that determine the results of related studies. In particular, the probability of developing schizophrenia in a child in families where both parents are not burdened with severe mental disorders is 5–7% (E. Zerbin-Rudin, 1967; V.M. Gindilis, 1979).

Due to the fact that healthy parents may give birth to a child with a predisposition to schizophrenia, there is interest in research emphasizing the relationship between the risk of developing a mental disorder and external, exogenous factors - family income level, social status, type of settlement and character of the area, accessibility medical care (in particular during childbirth) and education, social environment, level of cultural development.

Rice. 4. Biopsychosocial model of schizophrenia development

Developed and developing countries

Studies attempting to identify patterns in cases of schizophrenia in developed and developing countries have not yielded clear results, although there is a tendency for the number of hospitalizations to increase in developed countries. Locally, this % increases due to the migration factor - adaptation features, difficult living conditions and social isolation, including life on the “periphery” (Crocetti, 1971; Torrey, 1984; Nuallain, 1987).

Place of residence

Living in cities is associated with a high risk of TBI, intoxication, and adverse effects on the human body. Some cities are affected by hazardous enterprises and have high levels of gas pollution. Living in such an environment differs from life in the countryside - with clean air, water and farm-quality food, outside the acoustic “background” of the city (urban residents get used to it, stop noticing its negative impact), without stress, without artificial tension in the information field .

Pregnancy and childbirth

The connection between the risk of developing schizophrenia in the fetus and the seasonality of childbirth is also reflected in many scientific publications devoted to this topic. These studies highlight the fact that late winter and spring births predominate among patients with schizophrenia (Eaton, 1988). Among the hypotheses explaining the seasonal factor are the following:

seasonal endocrine effect (Hafner, 1990);
high percentage of older women giving birth (Dalen, 1990);
the influence of environmental temperature on gestation and childbirth (Pasamanick, 1986; Kendell, Adams, 1991);
previous FLU, other seasonal diseases (Watson, 1984; Torrey, 1988; Barr, 1990);
the influence of medications taken during pregnancy (Beiser, Iacono, 1990).

Family income level

The socioeconomic factor that determines the risk of developing schizophrenia is associated with belonging to low-income, poorly educated and marginal groups (Faris and Dunham, 1939; Schroeder, 1942; Gardner and Babigian, 1966; Giggs and Cooper, 1987). In such families, children have to deal with “real life” much earlier than their peers, for example, endure psychological and often physical violence, observe pathological relationships between father and mother.

There are several theories explaining the pathological influence of the “social environment” and low income:

theory of social drift - schizophrenia leads a person to socio-economic collapse;
social stress theory - stress inherent in low-income people leads to the development of schizophrenia;
neuroontogenetic theory - diseases and other harmful factors that accompany the life of immigrants and marginalized sections of the population create the preconditions for the development of schizophrenia.

Children born into such families usually do not have the opportunity to get an education, advance up the career ladder, or reach a higher socio-economic standard of living. However, the increasing level of unemployment and other socio-economic shocks can affect society as a whole, therefore, in times of crisis, an increase in the number of cases of schizophrenia is observed not only in low-income and vulnerable sections of the population.

Psychotraumatic events and stress

It is traumatic events that in most cases lead to the development of schizophrenia, and not the amount of stress that accumulates over a long period of time (Brown, Birley, 1986; Norman, Malla, 1993). One of the major WHO studies (Study on the determinants of outcome of severe mental disorder, 1987) emphasizes the dominant role of severe traumatic events 2–3 weeks before the development of signs of an acute psychotic state.

Immigration

Immigration is always a big stress. And if adults come to such a decision, as a rule, consciously, thinking through the move, then children find themselves truly unprotected in the face of unexpected changes in life. Unfortunately, the psychological preparation of children only partially smoothes out the immigration process, not allowing the child to fully ensure a comfortable transition. It should be noted here that a larger number of cases of schizophrenia is characteristic of the second generation of immigrants (Harrison, 1988).

Family (schizophrenogenic mother)

The concept of a family where parents create conditions under which a child develops schizophrenia is not new. The hypothesis was expressed by Freud and subsequently developed in the works of prominent psychiatrists, for example, the famous clinician F. Fromm-Reichmann (1948), B. Suran and D. Rizzo (1979). The key figure in such a family is the schizophrenogenic, or schizogenic, mother:

despotic, domineering woman;
shows hyperprotection over the child;
does not allow the child’s personality to develop;
rejects the child emotionally;
provokes anxiety and fears in the child;
does not allow the child to express “I”.

The father in such a family plays a secondary role; he is not involved in raising children and does not have the “right to vote.” A child in such a family finds himself in a situation where his personality has been suppressed since childhood. Against the background of pathological overprotection, the formation of natural adaptation mechanisms is disrupted, the development of the emotional-volitional sphere and, as a consequence, the personality with its inherent individual characteristics is blocked.

Ultimately, such a person turns out to be incapable of independent life in society and does not have healthy skills for creating and living in his own family. His “I,” suppressed over decades of life under the control of a schizophrenogenic mother, structures an irrational “adaptation” picture of the world (an analogue of the second “I”), including fears and, accordingly, prerequisites for the development of a psychotic state. As a rule, such people live under the care (for example, of parents or spouses, if they manage to start a family) and leaving the comfort zone, which involves a conflict between the pathological picture of the world and real life, can provoke the development of schizophrenia.

In 1992, the results of a prospective field study of five populations were obtained (AY Tien, WW Eaton), which refute the common belief that 1% of people with schizophrenia in the population. In other words, outside of clinical statistics, the percentage of patients with schizophrenia varies from 0.24 to 7.1% per 1000 people, depending on the region. This percentage includes people with a socially acceptable form of the disease, “adapted” to life in society, and who have not turned to a psychiatrist for help.

Cognitive abilities of patients' relatives

Among relatives of patients with schizophrenia, if we talk about the cognitive (cognitive) sphere, the following patterns are observed:

Altered psychomotor speed.
Impaired visual and short-term verbal memory.
Instability of attention.
Unusual formation of judgments (abstractness).
Difficulties in organizing an action plan.
Difficulty in copying images.

But this does not apply to all relatives. Most people either do not have these signs or compensate for them with sufficient intellectual activity. However, it is wrong to exclude the presence of these patterns in the analysis.

Influence of the male line

In men, schizophrenia appears earlier and is accompanied by more obvious symptoms. Therefore, it is important for doctors to understand whether it is inherited more often from the father than from the mother. In general, the following patterns are observed:

Men are prone to developing psychiatric pathologies already in childhood or adolescence.
Such diseases progress rapidly in them.
The impetus for the development of a disease or attack can be a minor factor.
Men, in principle, are more susceptible to neuropsychic overload.

However, practice shows that despite all these facts, schizophrenia is often inherited from women. But due to the severity of the symptoms, it seems that men suffer from this psychosis more often. This leads to the formation of a stereotype about the male nature of the disease. But in reality, women get it no less often, it’s just that the first signs appear later - after about 6 years.

In addition, there are other factors that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. Among them are alcoholism and drug addiction, which are more often observed among the stronger sex. Also, men are less likely to go to doctors, and therefore the pathology progresses for a long time without any medical intervention in this process.

All of these factors increase the risk of developing mental illness. However, this does not mean that it passes specifically from father to son. Although this possibility should not be excluded. It’s just that the mechanism of transmission of the disease still remains unknown.

How is schizophrenia diagnosed?

Diagnosis of schizophrenia is based on:

a thorough analysis of symptoms;
analysis of the individual formation of the nervous system;
information about next of kin;
conclusion of pathopsychic diagnostics;
monitoring the reaction of the nervous system to diagnostic drugs.

These are the main diagnostic measures to establish a diagnosis. There are also other, additional individual factors that may indirectly indicate the possibility of the presence of the disease and can help the doctor.

I would like to especially note that the final diagnosis of schizophrenia is not established at the first visit to the doctor. Even if a person is urgently hospitalized in an acute psychotic state (psychosis), it is too early to talk about schizophrenia. Establishing this diagnosis requires time to monitor the patient, the reaction to the doctor’s diagnostic actions and medications. If a person is currently in psychosis, then before making a diagnosis, doctors must first stop the acute condition and only after that can a full diagnosis be carried out. This is due to the fact that schizophrenic psychosis is often similar in symptoms to some acute conditions associated with neurological and infectious diseases. In addition, one doctor should not make the diagnosis. This should happen at a medical consultation. As a rule, when making a diagnosis, the opinion of a neurologist and therapist should be taken into account.

Schizophrenia as a hereditary disease

Remember! The diagnosis of any mental disorder is not established on the basis of any laboratory or instrumental research methods! These studies do not provide any direct evidence indicating the presence of a particular mental illness.

Hardware (EEG, MRI, REG, etc.) or laboratory (blood and other biological media analysis) studies can only exclude the possibility of neurological or other somatic diseases. In practice, a competent doctor very rarely uses them, and if he does, he does so very selectively. Schizophrenia as a hereditary disease is not determined by these means.

To obtain the maximum effect of eliminating the disease, you must:

do not be afraid, but consult a qualified specialist in time, only a psychiatrist;
high-quality, complete diagnostics, without shamanism;
correct complex therapy;
the patient's compliance with all recommendations of the attending physician.

In this case, the disease will not be able to take over and will be stopped regardless of its origin. This is proven by our many years of practice and fundamental science.

Influence of the female line

The risk of getting schizophrenia through the female line, that is, from the mother, is 5 times higher than from the father. But the transmission mechanism, as in all other situations, is unknown. Scientists have only specific clinical cases. Therefore, it is impossible to say for sure whether a woman with schizophrenia will have children who are schizophrenic or not. Although you still have to exclude other risks in order to reduce the percentage of probability.

There is an assumption that a woman may be a carrier of a chromosomal mutation that will cause the development of schizophrenia in her child. At the same time, she herself may not get sick. This, for example, often happens with color blindness, which is more often detected in men, but the gene for this disease is often transmitted from women.

A provoking factor for the onset of schizophrenia can be an infectious or respiratory disease suffered by the mother during pregnancy. Also during this period toxicosis and alcohol consumption are dangerous. They, in principle, negatively affect the condition of the embryo. It turns out that there is a risk of brain damage, which can subsequently cause schizophrenia.

In this context, it is important to consider the social causes of pathology that are associated with women. We are talking about difficult conditions for the child’s development and the lack of full care for him. But in any case, schizophrenia becomes a consequence of many reasons, which should include biochemical pathologies, organic brain damage, etc.

Congenital and acquired factors of manifestation

Congenital factors for the manifestation of schizophrenia include damaged genes of the schizophrenic type, infectious diseases of the mother during pregnancy. Other factors that increase risks: alcohol abuse or drug use before and during pregnancy. The general state of physical and mental health of the parents at the time of the child’s conception and the environmental environment also influence.

Many negative social, everyday and environmental factors influence the process of cell mutation during crossing over. A natural DNA mutation of 1% leads to the evolution of an organism. But aggravating factors increase the chance of pathological mutation of individual chromosome regions. Acquired factors include: domestic physical and mental violence, living in an urban area, loneliness, harassment, poor social adaptability.

How to influence genes

So, inheritance of the pathology in question is an assumption that is not exactly confirmed by scientific data. Genetic conditioning is considered as one of the provoking factors. To date, there is no identified gene that would definitely lead to this disease. In most cases, we are talking about a set of genes that could hypothetically become the impetus for the development of schizophrenia.

But is the predisposition itself, when there is such a diagnosis in the anamnesis of relatives, a “time bomb”? Should a person whose grandmother, mother or sister suffers/suffered from this illness constantly check their mental health?

Consider the example of alcoholism. Not a single doctor can name its exact reasons either. There is always a group of factors, despite the fact that many researchers claim to have found the gene for this disease. Even if this is the case, it is not possible to influence it.

Moreover, alcoholism is almost 50% caused by the environment. If there is also a genetic predisposition, then this percentage becomes slightly higher. But influencing this, that is, preventing the disease, can only be done by influencing social factors: not visiting places where they drink a lot, leading a healthy lifestyle, coming for consultations with a psychologist, etc.

In almost all cases, there must be a push for the incorrect genes to express themselves. If this provoking factor is not present, perhaps a person, even with a large set of genes that hypothetically cause schizophrenia, will live a quiet life without any hints of psychiatric disorders.

Let us give another example directly related to the disease in question. Let's imagine identical twins whose genes are the same. If one of them develops schizophrenia, the risk of the other developing it is less than 50%. This means that there are other reasons that are not related to heredity.

The priority of the hereditary theory in the past

The active study of genetic predisposition to this disease began in the 19th century. In those days, the hereditary, “family” theory was fundamental. There was an opinion among ordinary people: if there was at least one case of mental illness in the family, the mental disorder would certainly be inherited.

Such families became outcasts; they did not want to marry their members, for fear of being “infected” with mental illness. Therefore, even isolated cases of schizophrenia in the family were carefully hidden, so as not to spoil the family reputation and not complicate the life of descendants. This factor significantly complicated the diagnosis of the connection between a mental disorder and heredity. Patients could not tell for sure whether such cases of the disease had occurred in their family or not.

Nevertheless, in many case histories it was still possible to trace a genetic involvement.

For example , in psychiatric medicine there is a known case that occurred in the second half of the 20th century. The family had four girls - identical twins. Their father suffered from mental illness. Until adolescence, girls were no different from their peers - they studied well, communicated with friends, and graduated from school. Only one of them was unable to complete her studies - she was diagnosed with a catotonic form of schizophrenia. However, at the age of 20-23 years, symptoms characteristic of this mental disorder were also noted in the remaining sisters. This case clearly proved the heredity of the disease.

If there have been cases of schizophrenia in your family, and you are afraid of a repetition of the situation with you or your relative, contact the “Balance” mental health center for advice. We have experienced psychiatrists who will answer all your questions, give advice and recommendations, and, if necessary, conduct a comprehensive diagnosis. All information received by the doctor will remain strictly confidential. You don't have to be afraid of publicity.

Make an appointment by phone: +7.

No predisposition

About 10% of patients with schizophrenia do not have a genetic predisposition. At least, none of the relatives in several generations can detect it. Doctors can study the anamnesis of all relatives that are provided. It is not a fact that signs of a mental disorder will be found, in principle.

This means that people who hypothetically should never get sick, according to proponents of the genetic theory, are also at risk of encountering this pathology. Moreover, 10% of patients, which statistics indicate, is a fairly high figure.

How to avoid being at risk

Knowing about the predisposition to mental disorders, it is quite possible to avoid the peculiar “activators” of schizophrenia.

To do this you need:

Lead a healthy lifestyle.
It is necessary to give up alcohol and any substances that can affect the psyche.
It is also advisable to establish a diet and engage in physical activity.
It is required to undergo regular examinations with a psychologist.

Self-medication is strictly prohibited. It is necessary to share experiences, this will help to avoid apathy and further development of pathology. Stressful situations or too high loads should not be allowed.

With the right approach, schizophrenia is quite treatable and the patient can live a fairly long life with a clear memory and mind.

Other risk factors

People who have a relative with schizophrenia are advised to rule out other risk factors. If you are a carrier of genes that cause schizophrenia, you should play it safe and take all possible measures to prevent pathology. Some of the risk factors were described above in the theories and hypotheses section. Let us list the psychological and social reasons. Among the first:

Closedness, focus on your inner world.
Passivity, suspicion, stubbornness.
Tendency to talk at length.
Difficulty in formulating thoughts.
Inadequate emotional reactions.

The last paragraph deals with situations where unimportant events greatly affect a person, and serious tragedies do not cause any emotional response. These symptoms may indicate a person is susceptible to schizophrenia. If the child has them, he should be shown to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Social factors, which refer to the influence of the environment, include:

Uncomfortable living conditions - overcrowded city, large number of people in the apartment. All this leads to high levels of stress.
Social status. If it is low, and a person does not have a good job and income, the likelihood of psychosis increases.
Negative family relationships. We are talking about conflicts, excessive hostility, suspicions, constant criticism, etc.

The causes of schizophrenia can be listed almost endlessly: alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual or other violence, trauma, etc. In addition, it is worth understanding that this pathology is diverse. It takes a variety of forms - paroxysmal, paranoid, sluggish, etc. Some patients with such diagnoses live normal lives, while others die or become incapacitated.

However, in all cases it is recommended to start treatment as early as possible. To do this, you need to detect the first signs in time. A big role in this is given to relatives, through whose efforts it is often possible to bring a person for the first examination.

Is schizophrenia a genetic disease or not?

If you retell a very strange dream and explain that you find many similarities in it with real life, will they think that you have schizophrenia? Or are you he? How to recover after the loss of a loved one and not go crazy with grief? At what point in time will your inner voice tell you that your soul no longer hurts? Or will he begin to talk to you in the voices of strangers and show you calming dreams that turn into your personal reality? This is the main question of the emergence of schizophrenia as a genetic disease or acquired. But even in relation to people who commit actions from a range of normal behavior, psychology finds explanations for the state of the body that are not related to the stages of the disease:

frustration;
affect;
depression;
euphoria;
apathy;
autism (the origin of which is also vigorously debated by experts).

From the editor: Types and causes of intellectual disabilities

There is an opinion that schizophrenia is not a hereditary gene, but a common gene of humanity that arises against the background of personal perception of any situation that arises in life once or is repeated with precise frequency, which allows the development of the disease to begin. In addition, in women, manifestations of schizophrenia are recorded to a greater extent than in men. Which confirms this theory, because the female sex is much more likely to pass everything through the heart.

Main symptoms

Symptoms are determined by the type and form of the disease. However, there are a number of signs that are characteristic of almost all varieties of this pathology:

Openness of thoughts. It seems to a person that all his thoughts are accessible to others.
Problems with thinking. Often, schizophrenics are prone to lengthy reasoning. At the same time, they constantly get confused, confused and cannot fully formulate what they want to convey to others.
Rave. The patient feels that his thoughts, actions and feelings are controlled by someone else.
Hallucinations and pseudohallucinations. The latter differ from the former in that a person does not identify images, voices, sounds and smells with real-life objects and objects.
Emotional disturbances. As a rule, patients have a tendency to apathy and pathological experiences.

There are also less obvious signs, which are called negative (negative) symptoms, indicating a decrease in mental activity:

lack of initiative;
decreased memory and attention;
fast fatiguability;
loss of interest in something;
lethargy or lack of facial expressions;
isolation and tendency to loneliness;
inability to enjoy life.

In adults, loss of communication abilities, professional unsuitability and suicidal behavior are observed. In children, you may notice the following signs of the disease:

Inexplicable fear. The child refuses to go into the room or go to this or that place, screams, resists and throws tantrums for no apparent reason. Often children with this diagnosis tell stories about scary creatures and even show the places where they are located.
Strange fantasies. During stories about movie or comic book characters, the child becomes so immersed in his role that he cannot get out of it for a long time.
Decrease in intelligence. He becomes less attentive, does not remember new information well, and his performance at school drops.
Strange actions. The child constantly looks around, listens, or speaks in a whisper all the time. It is possible that he hears voices and does not understand that they are only in his head.
Inappropriate emotions. Expresses them disproportionately to the situation. Cries, laughs, is happy or upset when there are no objective reasons for this.
Manifestations of cruelty. The child becomes more aggressive, communicates less often with peers, and has a tendency to violence against animals or toys.

Some of these signs, in one form or another, can be found in healthy children with poor upbringing. It is important not to ignore them, since schizophrenia, which began early, leads to more severe consequences than the same pathology that occurs in an adult.

Clinical picture

In schizophrenia, there is a whole spectrum of disorders, which are called negative and productive symptoms.

Negative symptoms include:

Autism. Represents isolation, stiffness. A person feels comfortable only when alone or with a small number of close people. Social contacts are reduced to zero over time, the desire to communicate with someone disappears;
Ambivalence. Duality of judgments. A person experiences ambivalent feelings towards many people and things. They can evoke both delight and disgust in him. This leads to an internal split of personality; a person does not know what he thinks is true;
Associative disorder. Simple associations are replaced by more elaborate and abstract ones. A person can compare incomparables, find connections where there are none;
Affect. "Emotional numbness." A person stops expressing his emotions properly, his actions are slow, and his reaction to everything is cold.

The productive picture includes:

Neurosis-like conditions. Sometimes schizophrenia has an atypical course and emotional instability, phobias, and manic states come first;
Rave. Delusions of jealousy and persecution are common;
Hallucinations. Can be both visual and auditory. The most common are auditory – voices in the head;
Mental automatism. The patient believes that all his actions were done according to someone else’s will, and that other people put thoughts into his head. Often - the feeling that his thoughts are being read.

Negative and productive symptoms are antagonists. If productive symptoms predominate, then negative ones decrease, and vice versa.

When it appears

Medical practice shows that with age the risk of developing schizophrenia decreases. According to statistics, the disease manifests itself with the following frequency:

10-20 years - 17%.
20-30 years old - 39%.
30-40 years old - 26%.
40-50 years old - 14%.

More precisely, at first the risk becomes higher and higher. This continues until about 30 years of age. Subsequently, the likelihood of getting sick is much less. However, it can manifest itself either a few years after birth or in old age. The risk is less, but it still exists.

Disease prevention

Since there is still debate about what causes schizophrenia, it is impossible to say what measures should be taken to definitely not get it. Spouses planning a child, whose relatives had schizophrenia, must be warned about possible problems with the baby's health in the future.

Secondary prevention consists of timely diagnosis of schizophrenia and its proper treatment.

This article is posted for educational purposes only and does not constitute scientific material or professional medical advice.

What to do

So, schizophrenia can be congenital (hereditary) and acquired. No doctor can give the exact reasons. If you have a genetic predisposition, you should not be afraid of the disease for the rest of your life. However, if possible, other risk factors should be removed.

Schizophrenia cannot be completely cured. But this does not mean that you can ignore it or, on the contrary, despair. In many cases, doctors manage to stop the symptoms of the disease permanently or for many years. The main thing is to start treatment immediately in order to prevent serious damage to the personality or its complete destruction.

Science does not stand still. Perhaps in 10-20 years scientists will find a way to completely rid a person of this dangerous disease. However, reversing the disease is possible only if the unhealthy personality has not supplanted the real one. With a serious schizophrenic defect, a person loses his legal capacity. There is a possibility of death.

Signs of schizophrenia

Research can identify potentially mutating genes, or the lack thereof. It is these genes that are the first reason that can increase the chance of the disease. There are approximately three types of symptoms by which psychiatrists can determine whether a person is sick:

Disorders of attention, thinking, and perception are cognitive.
Manifestations in the form of hallucinations, delusional thoughts that are presented as genius.
Apathy, complete lack of desire to do anything, lack of motivation and will.

Schizophrenics do not have a clear organization and coherence of speech and thinking; the patient may think that he hears voices that are not in reality. Difficulties arise in social life and communication with other people. The illness is accompanied by a loss of all interest in life and events, and sometimes severe agitation may appear, or the schizophrenic may freeze for a long time in an unusual and unnatural position. Signs can be so ambiguous that they must be observed for at least a month.