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10 - Schizophrenia, neurodevelopment, and epigenetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

By
Arturas Petronis
Edited by
Matcheri S. Keshavan ,
James L. Kennedy  and
Robin M. Murray
Arturas Petronis
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada
Matcheri S. Keshavan
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
James L. Kennedy
Affiliation:
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto
Robin M. Murray
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
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Summary

The neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia is based on the hypothesis that early brain insults affect brain development and eventually cause dysfunction of the mature brain, predisposing to schizophrenia. A large group of putative etiological factors has been suggested, investigated, and categorized into environmental and genetic groups. The first group includes various obstetric complications such as birth trauma, maternal viral infection during pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, and deficiencies in nutrition. The second group provokes emphasis on DNA sequence variation in the genes that may play a role in neurodevelopment. This chapter suggests the idea that developmental changes in schizophrenia can be caused and/or mediated by epigenetic factors. It argues that shifting the emphasis from the traditional gene-environment dichotomy to epigenetics may provide a cohesive theoretical framework for a myriad of fragmented phenomenological and molecular findings in schizophrenia and lead to a series of new molecular strategies, designs, and approaches.

Keywords

brainDNAepigeneticsschizophrenianeurodevelopmentgene-environment dichotomy
Type
Chapter
Information
Neurodevelopment and Schizophrenia , pp. 174 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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