Western University study reveals first biological marker for schizophrenia

Research out of Western University suggests schizophrenia can be diagnosed by studying a person’s DNA, paving the way for an individualized treatment plan.

Lead researcher Dr. Shiva Singh, a professor in Western’s Faculty of Science, says his work over the past 20 years challenges a “very fundamental principle” that a person’s genome sequence doesn’t change throughout the course of a lifetime.

Instead, Singh says there are genetic mutations taking place all the time. Many of the mutations don’t have implications for a person’s health. But if they happen in a certain set of genes, they can cause schizophrenia or other diseases.

This research suggests there’s a biological marker for schizophrenia. That’s something researchers didn’t have before.

Getting a genome sequence will cost a patient between $2,000 and $5,000 Singh says. The sequence will help doctors predict which medication will be most effective for each patient.

Related Research Paper:

Post-zygotic genomic changes in glutamate and dopamine pathway genes may explain discordance of monozygotic twins for schizophrenia

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That’s great news. What if a portion of us turn out not to be schizophrenics.

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I’m not sure about this. This is confusing

"The bottom line is no two patients affected with schizophrenia have identical mutations,” Singh said.
“Therefore, the same medication could not be used to treat these patients.”

i reckon i have self inflicted brain damage :confused: just saying :frowning:

I agree - its a very poorly written article with very little new data. I think that they are basically studying epigenetic and its role in schizophrenia.

In an unrelated effort - there is a science discovery project called the “Epigenome” mapping - which researchers are working on. That will really help in this area, I suspect:

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