DNA Mutation Found in Patients with Non-Inherited Schizophrenia

[Jim__]

“Fresh mutations” in DNA are involved in at least 50 percent of schizophrenia cases when there is no family history of the illness, BBC News reports.

Schizophrenia affects one in every 100 people during their lifetime. A tenth of people with the illness have a parent with the condition also. But researchers have now found that genetics plays a role even in cases in which the illness is not inherited.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center analyzed the genetic code of 225 people -- some had schizophrenia while others did not. The researchers found that mutations in 40 genes were linked to schizophrenia.

...

"It suggests that many more mutations than we suspected may contribute to schizophrenia. This is probably because of the complexity of the neural circuits that are affected by the disease; many genes are needed for their development and function."

a little bit more ...

[saras]

1. Science progresses, but never lets go of oversimplification...

How long before they discover that genes that "contribute" to schizophrenia also "contribute" to valuable and important human traits also?

Probably about a generation after they remove these genes from the human genome.