Genes and Schizophrenia

Professor Pat Levitt discusses that although it shares genes with other disorders, schizophrenia is likely caused by unique combinations of genes.

The genes that are implicated in schizophrenia, some of them have been implicated in other neuropsychiatric disorders, like bipolar disorder for example. Genes that are responsible for building the connections between nerve cells have been implicated both in schizophrenia and in bipolar disorder. There are genes that have been implicated in schizophrenia, for example those that are responsible for certain kinds of neurotransmitters like dopamine. They have been implicated in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well. So there are some examples. But the bottom line is we think there are going to be relatively unique combinations of genes that cause vulnerability for each of the disorders.