The polygenic architecture of schizophrenia - rethinking pathogenesis and nosology

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with considerable morbidity and mortality. Although the past two decades have seen limited improvement in the treatment of schizophrenia, research into the genetic causes of this condition has made important advances that offer new insights into the aetiology of schizophrenia. This Review summarizes the evidence for a polygenic architecture of schizophrenia that involves a large number of risk alleles across the whole range of population frequencies. These genetic risk loci implicate biological processes related to neurodevelopment, neuronal excitability, synaptic function and the immune system in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Mathematical models also suggest a substantial overlap between schizophrenia and psychiatric, behavioural and cognitive traits, a situation that has implications for understanding its clinical epidemiology, psychiatric nosology and pathobiology. Looking ahead, further genetic discoveries are expected to lead to clinically relevant predictive approaches for identifying high-risk individuals, improved diagnostic accuracy, increased yield from drug development programmes and improved stratification strategies to address the heterogeneous disease course and treatment responses observed among affected patients.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:16

Enthalten in:

Nature reviews. Neurology - 16(2020), 7 vom: 11. Juli, Seite 366-379

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Smeland, Olav B [VerfasserIn]
Frei, Oleksandr [VerfasserIn]
Dale, Anders M [VerfasserIn]
Andreassen, Ole A [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 17.01.2022

Date Revised 29.03.2022

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1038/s41582-020-0364-0

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM311072968