Will There be a Cure for Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a very serious and severe disease that affects the brain. It renders the patient prone to hallucinations and delusions, which leads to behavioral problems. If left untreated, this will lead to more complications, which will in turn lead to the isolation of the person, making them more of a difficulty to the community. Schizophrenia affects many people around the world, regardless of race and gender. The symptoms usually appear among people 18 to 35 years old. At present, there is no medicine that will effectively cure schizophrenia. This is why schizophrenia research is an ongoing process, and researchers are striving to learn more about this brain disorder to produce a cure for it.

Genes

Many scientists around the world are now looking at the nature of schizophrenia, and how it can be prevented and possibly cured. Scientists have long believed that heredity has a large role in the development of this disorder, and are still trying to find out to the extent of heredity’s role in the development of the disease. Scientists study the different trends in families, and how schizophrenia is passed from one generation to another. The genetics of endophenotypes in schizophrenia are analyzed. This is a long and time-consuming study, since scientists need time (measured in years) and many patients with which to study.

Scientists also spend a lot of time trying to find a gene that is responsible for schizophrenia. They hope that once this gene or genes are discovered, they can eliminate its effect. Careful and exhaustive studies of the brains of test subjects and patients are still being conducted to understand the genetics of schizophrenia.

Previous scientific studies have shown that people with schizophrenia have abnormalities in these endophenotypes, and these endophenotypes are passed on to relatives. Though relatives might not show the symptoms, they can still carry the genes to their children, which could eventually trigger schizophrenia in a child down the line.

Society and Environment

Researchers have also been looking to environmental factors which could be a trigger for schizophrenia. They still can’t pinpoint what exactly triggers this disorder. They have tried to look at poverty, and the likely occurrence of the disorder in developed and developing countries. Their findings show that there is still no definite link between poverty and schizophrenia, but there may be one. They suspect that there are many intertwined factors that can trigger the disease, but they are still looking for the what and how.

Schizophrenia research has a long way to go before it can give us concrete answers on why schizophrenia happens, and what the cure for it is. The research will need a lot of time, effort, and expertise, as well as funding. Hopefully, when all of these elements come together, scientists will finally be able to discover answers, and a cure will be possible.