Question: What more do you want to understand about schizophrenia

anon answered on 16 Mar 2021:

Hi JamesH,

What a great question! And the answer – everything!
There is so much we know about schizophrenia. From genetic effects, even at the chromosome level we can see abnormalities! We know that certain neurotransmitters like dopamine causes something called ‘aberrant salience’ where too much of this chemical means we assign meaning to things that we shouldn’t like seeing 5 white cars and thinking it’s a sign from MI5. Or even certain parts of the brains are smaller or don’t work properly.
Then we know about environmental factors that influence these, things like stress and drug use can really make it worse.
But there is so much we don’t know! I think personally I would love to understand more about how the brain changes so much in schizophrenia and what comes first? The symptoms or the brain abnormalities? So which causes which? And specially from my research I am doing now – given a genetic effect, why do some siblings not develop the disorder while others do?