Schizophrenia Causes & Symptoms: New Study Sheds Light on how Patients Develop This Mental Health Disorder

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The cause of schizophrenia is something that has baffled the scientific community even to this day and age. But findings of a new study published in the journal Nature on Jan. 27 could help experts unravel the mystery and could pave the way for potential treatment.

Harvard researchers found that there are people who develop schizophrenia when something goes wrong in the biological process taking place in the brain during its development in adolescence and early adulthood, says WebMD.

The process referred to as "synaptic pruning," wherein excess brain cells and synapses were removed for improved efficiency of function, occurs during brain development of a young person turning to adulthood. But when things go wrong because of mutation, a gene involve in the process could increase a person's risk of schizophrenia.

"Somehow, this biological process becomes miscalibrated and removes too many synapses," said study author Steven McCarroll, director of genetics for the Broad Institute's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research and an associate professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Something about this process of maturation, if it goes awry, results in brain wiring that can no longer perform some of the basic functions that it used to be able to perform."

"The study, by scientists from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital and the Broad Institute, a research center allied with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provides a showcase of biomedical investigation at its highest level," wrote the New York Times.

David B. Goldstein, a professor of genetics at Columbia University, commended the work of the authors of the study and said that the findings could give experts like him a foothold from which they can build upon for further accomplishments; something that has eluded them for a long time.

According to the Mayo Clinic, schizophrenia involves a variety of cognitive, behavioral and emotional problems. Some of the signs and symptoms include delusions or the mistaken beliefs that are detached from reality. These delusions could occur to as much as 80 percent of the schizophrenia cases.

Another symptom is hallucinations, which is the perception of various things that don't really exist. The most common form could involve hearing voices.

A person suffering from schizophrenia could also manifest disorganized thinking (speech), extremely disorganized or abnormal motor behavior and negative symptoms, which could refer to the inability to normally function, such as the lack emotion, unchanging facial expressions, speaking in monotone, social withdrawal and the lack of ability to experience pleasure.

While experts are still clueless and are still inching closer towards the understanding of the real cause of the condition, there are some known risk factors including:

• family history of schizophrenia

• exposure to viruses, toxins or malnutrition while in the womb, especially within the first six months

• having an older father

• taking psychoactive or psychotropic medications at a young age