Schizophrenia is a condition that we often hear a lot about through the media. The uniqueness of the condition has made it a popular plot in movies and TV shows. It is effectively a condition where the sufferer experiences hallucinations, disordered thoughts and other cognitive and emotional problems. The problem usually begins in early childhood and can make it very difficult for the person with the disease to function properly in society.
There is no known single cause of schizophrenia. And while in some cases the condition runs in families, it is quite often that no genetic risk is apparent, leading many researchers and scientists to look for alternative explanations.
However, new research in mice appears to have proven a widely-thought hypothesis correct: that the syndrome can emerge from multiple environmental problems. Specifically the team showed that the combination of prenatal infection and adolescent trauma could lead to the development of symptoms of schizophrenia.
In a sense, the results of this research have been expected. Environmental issues such as infection and abuse were shown a long time ago to be risk factors for schizophrenia. For example, large studies of mothers who were infected with influenza during their pregnancy were shown to have their risk factor for developing schizophrenia double.
One long-held belief around the condition is that an early infection creates a latent vulnerability to schizophrenia that only turns into the condition by other factors such as physical injury or emotional trauma. Such stressors are thought to be especially bad for you during key developmental stages of the brain – mainly during childhood and adolescence.
This research could now indicate to doctors which patients could be at risk of developing the condition, which could ultimately lead to better preventative measures being taken.
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