How Some Siblings Overcome Schizophrenia Risk

A brain imaging study has found that siblings of schizophrenic patients can overcome their genetic predisposition to the disease.

AsianScientist (Aug. 14, 2015) – Despite their shared genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, siblings of patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia are eventually able to catch up with normally developing peers. The study documenting these findings, published in JAMA Psychiatry, opens up new avenues for treating the hugely debilitating condition.

“The greatest risk for schizophrenia is family history, but the majority of siblings of individuals with the disorder are unaffected,” said Dr. Andrew Zalesky from the University of Melbourne, lead author of the study.

“So why are these brothers and sisters able to overcome the risk? Looking for these biological factors that protect a person from developing schizophrenia opens up a new direction in the search for treatments.”

Zalesky and his team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map the brains of 109 children with childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), from ages 12 to 24. They compared the images with scans taken of the participants’ brothers and sisters without COS to see if similar brain changes took place over time.

The siblings without COS showed similar delays in brain connectivity while growing up, but these connections tended to normalise or ‘catch up’ to those of normally developing adolescents.

Zalesky said the ability of the siblings to catch up and develop important brain circuitry means there is a degree of resilience to their risk for schizophrenia.

“We’ve looked at the development of brain networks over the adolescent period, from childhood to early adulthood. Abnormalities detected early in the unaffected children normalize by age 16,” he added.

Co-author, Professor Christos Pantelis, heads the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Melbourne.He said examining the biological, social and psychological protective factors that can improve resilience to mental disorders will help researchers to develop new approaches to treatment.

“New generation medications can help young patients manage their symptoms, but can have significant side effects. Our work has the potential to open up avenues towards earlier intervention with fewer side-effects that improve a child’s resilience to becoming ill,” Pantelis said.

“This is an interesting new direction, as it suggests the search for targeted psychiatric treatments for schizophrenia and psychosis requires following young people over time.”

The article can be found at: Zalesky et al. (2015) Delayed Development of Brain Connectivity in Adolescents With Schizophrenia and Their Unaffected Siblings.
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Source: University of Melbourne.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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