It sounds like prenatal environment (i.e. environment in the womb before birth) is by far the most important factor in terms of “environment” factors that contribute to schizophrenia.
" Findings from one of the largest studies of postmortem human brain tissue suggest that environmental influences during the prenatal period cause brain changes associated with schizophrenia, but that environmental influences in early adulthood, when symptoms of the illness typically emerge, may not be as important as originally thought."
"“This conclusion, while perhaps not the final verdict on the subject, is hard to resist given this remarkable evidence,” said Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., director and CEO of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development "
The theory that schizophrenia has its origins in early brain development got a boost from two studies published online November 30 in Nature Neuroscience.
Both studies focus on DNA methylation, an epigenetic process that modifies the function of DNA and that appears to be important in brain development and, potentially, in schizophrenia.
In one study, researchers combined high-density DNA methylation profiling with genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping in 166 human fetal brain samples from the first and second trimesters of gestation.
“Our data show that there are considerable genetic effects on DNA methylation in the developing human brain,” Jonathan Mill, PhD, professor of epigenetics, University of Exeter Medical School,
my parents were starving as holocaust victims in the 40’s and I was born 13 years after the war. considering the garbage they had to eat to survive, I wonder… judy
It’s hard for me to imagine my mother being anything but conscientious during her pregnancy with me. If there were any nurturing issues while I was in the womb I doubt if it came from carelessness by my mother. I can identify issues during my adolescence which could have contributed to my schizophrenia. No relatives in my family had schizophrenia, so, in my case, I would tend to believe my schizophrenia originated from nurture, not nature. There is probably a combination of both nature and nurture in the origins of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Tied to Epigenetic Changes Before Birth
The theory that schizophrenia has its origins in early brain development got a boost from two studies published online November 30 in Nature Neuroscience.
Both studies focus on DNA methylation, an epigenetic process that modifies the function of DNA and that appears to be important in brain development and, potentially, in schizophrenia.
In one study, researchers combined high-density DNA methylation profiling with genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping in 166 human fetal brain samples from the first and second trimesters of gestation.
“Our data show that there are considerable genetic effects on DNA methylation in the developing human brain,” Jonathan Mill, PhD, professor of epigenetics, University of Exeter Medical School, and head of the psychiatric epigenetics group, King’s College London, who led the study, told Medscape Medical News.
…
They identified “widespread” DNA methylation changes in the transition from prenatal to postnatal life. “Notably, these developmentally associated changes in DNA methylation were significantly enriched for genomic regions that confer clinical risk for schizophrenia,” they report.
Thanks firemonkey