Important news that has been the direction of research finding for the past decade - the predisposition for psychosis in the brain seems to be something that is predominantly due to genes and early biology (during pregnancy - infections, stress, poor nutrition, etc.)
Recent findings suggest that brain abnormalities associated with psychosis are present at a young age before clinical high-risk symptoms are typically identified.
“Based on the early age at onset and convergent evidence from animal models, psychosis is increasingly conceptualized as a downstream product of abnormal neurodevelopment. A better understanding of the developmental antecedents of psychosis may lead to both early identification and novel targeted interventions,” Theodore D. Satterthwaite, MD, MA, of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues wrote.
Such deficits are not dependent on disease chronicity or the confounding influence of psychotropic medication,” the researchers wrote.
I believe it considering I’ve experienced psychotic symptoms as far back as I can remember. Even before I can remember my mom says I had odd behaviors that worried her.
Schizophrenic patients rarely display symptoms of their mental illness before adulthood. In new research, scientists have found important evidence supporting the idea that a certain subset of those who develop the highly hereditary disease are genetically set on that path before birth.
“When a schizophrenic patient walks into a clinic at 18 [hearing voices], you’re seeing what’s already gone wrong,” said Kristen Brennand, one of the lead authors of the study published Thursday in the journal Cell Reports. “This shows us what goes wrong earlier in life, before symptoms ever develop.”
and:
“These findings support a model of an extremely complex genetic architecture underlying schizophrenia risk,” the report said, “one in which miR-9 is just one of many factors contributing to schizophrenia predisposition in a subset of patients.”
More than 1,000 genes have been associated with schizophrenia in recent years, but the social significance of these most recent findings, said Brennand, cannot be overstated.