A new study, carried out by an international consortium of geneticists, provides new avenues for understanding schizophrenia. This is the largest study carried out to date in the psychiatric field: it involved more than 150,000 people, including nearly 37,000 patients, and brought together more than 300 researchers from 35 countries.
The aim was to discover the genetic variations involved in schizophrenia. The study identified 128 genetic variations that could predispose to the disease; including 83 which were unknown until now.
For Dr Stéphane Jamain, researcher at Inserm, who intervened on the antenna of Europe 1 : “this kind of study makes it possible to fight effectively against the received idea which wants that the schizophrenic has a mental problem and that it is dangerous”.
The study confirms that there is indeed a link between schizophrenia and the genes of the immune system. Genes from the brain area are also concerned, those for the transmission of information between neurons, learning and memorization.
But patients will still have to be patient because gene therapy is not yet topical.
“We must also develop therapeutic trials on patients as quickly as possible, in order to test already known molecules which would prove to be effective against schizophrenia” insists the Inserm researcher.
The treatment that currently exists has changed little over the past 60 years. It acts on transmissions between neurons in order to limit hallucinations, delusional flashes and the feeling of persecution experienced by the schizophrenic.
