A Systemic Look At Schizophrenia

“It’s clear that schizophrenia has a very strong genetic component,” Bahn says. “Most genes are not used only in the brain. If there is an underlying abnormality at the genetic level that leads to pathology in the brain, the assumption can be made that there should also be dysregulation in the peripheral system. It may not lead to pathology, but it may reflect the pathology in the brain.”

Bahn and her coworkers have seen that 40% of the changes observed in the brains of schizophrenia patients also occur in the peripheral systems. The affected pathways include cell replication, immune function, and glucose metabolism.

They’re learning that schizophrenia affects the body beyond the brain. The article goes on to explain how this can be used for diagnosis and other awesome things. (They’re doing similar things with types of depression as well…. It highlights how little we actually know about disorders.)