Schizophrenia comprises eight genetically distinct disorders

Schizophrenia is not a single disease caused by one gene but a group of eight distinct genetic disorders — each with its own set of symptoms, a study released Monday said. The new findings, published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, could help doctors diagnose and treat the often debilitating symptoms associated with the mental illness. While schizophrenia affects people in different ways, some of the most common manifestations include hallucinations or delusions, disorganized speech and behavior and a disassociation of thoughts and emotions.

Genes don’t operate by themselves. They function in concert much like an orchestra, and to understand how they’re working, you have to know not just who the members of the orchestra are but how they interact.

C. Robert Cloninger, one of the study’s senior researchers

Researchers based their conclusions on a gene study of more than 4,000 people with schizophrenia and 3,800 people without the condition. Individual genes have inconsistent connections to schizophrenia, but groups of interacting genes were found to contribute to an extremely high risk of the disease, making it nearly impossible for individuals with those genetic variations to avoid the illness. The study marks a breakthrough for scientists hoping to treat patients suffering from the illness. Now that the genetic variations responsible for the symptoms have been identified, it may be possible to target specific pathways that lead to schizophrenia.

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