Schizophrenia: an integrative approach to modelling a complex disorder.

ABSTRACT: The discovery of candidate susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and the generation of mice lacking proteins that reproduce biochemical processes that are disrupted in this mental illness offer unprecedented opportunities for improved modelling of this complex disorder. Several lines of evidence indicate that obstetrical complications, as well as fetal or neonatal exposure to viral infection, are predisposing events for some forms of schizophrenia. These environmental events can be modelled in animals, resulting in some of the characteristic features of schizophrenia; however, animal models have yet to be developed that encompass both environmental and genetic aspects of this mental illness. A large number of candidate schizophrenia susceptibility genes have been identified that encode pr

SUBMITTER: Robertson GS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1449879 | biostudies-literature | 2006 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature