Schizophrenia, Hubris and Science
I&#x27;m glad someone knowledgable on the topic has written about this.<p>When I saw the report, and then saw people I respect heralding it as a huge breakthrough, it seemed over-the-top.<p>But I&#x27;m no scientist or medical expert, and I&#x27;m bored of emotion-driven debates about medical science between myself and other scientific laypeople, so I kept my thoughts - and the results of my own hunt for further details - to myself.<p>But as the report says, evidence and details of genetic mechanisms in schizophrenia (and other mental and neurological disorders) are not new.<p>Sure this discovery may add some substance to the understanding of the topic, but it&#x27;s not revolutionary.<p>The real revolution will be when science figures out exactly why and how <i>some</i> people with a given genetic predisposition for an illness will develop that illness, whilst others do not.<p>As discussed in this article about the 2003 book <i>The Gene Illusion</i> [1], the 50% rate of identitical twin concordance for schizophrenia is widely cited as evidence that it is a genetically deterministic condition.<p>But whether or not the figure is really 50% or something lower, that still leaves at least 50% room for non-genetic factors.<p>We&#x27;ll only start making real progress in curing these kinds of illnesses when we form a deep understanding of whatever is going on in that very large component that we already know is not purely genetic.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;human-nature.com&#x2F;nibbs&#x2F;03&#x2F;joseph.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;human-nature.com&#x2F;nibbs&#x2F;03&#x2F;joseph.html</a>