Cause of schizophrenia is environmental and multifactorial . However, the two most important factors are firstly, absence of normality, in parent-child interactions ensuring psychosocial privation. This is replaced by presence of distorted rules regarding relationships and statuses of sufferers, including consistent psychosocial boundary violations, by nuclear family primary carers leading to an inability to comprehend environment and subsequently to organize thoughts and actions. Parent-child transactions must be ‘straight’. Due to abnormal behaviour, it is likely that parents themselves have disordered personalities or other mental health problems. From personal experience, it is being suggested that the two most likely personality disorders are paranoid and or narcissistic due to parents being controlling, defensive, inconsistent, self-absorbed and untruthful. This is a possible risk factor . Second is the extent of involvement and support, or lack thereof, by significant others, especially, but not limited to, extended family members. Therefore, social isolation of parents is a second possible risk factor. Where family members intervene it is less likely that schizophrenia will develop in a child.

Thank you for your explanation madam Valerie Saunders, Dr. Joseph A.Sprute.

I think schizophrenia is born with some pathological psychological programs, such as "use your fantasy to satisfy your wishes."

The primary factors causing Schizophrenia are genetic (family) and perinatal (mother's exposure during pregnancy to various adverse factors), and possibly aggravated by teen exposure to psychoactive chemicals.

The evolving onset of symptoms cause the huge psychological and sociological symptoms as the person moves along the trajectory of the condition. In my volunteer work, I've had personal experience with people across the spectrum ('quirky' to 'violent homicidal') and from youth to seniors. There is plenty of solid academic literature out their on all aspects of schizophrenia and some personal accounts and diaries on YouTube.

Pathophysiology

Anatomic, neurotransmitter, and immune system abnormalities have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Anatomic abnormalities

Neuroimaging studies show differences between the brains of those with schizophrenia and those without this disorder. For example, the ventricles are somewhat larger, there is decreased brain volume in medial temporal areas, and changes are seen in the hippocampus.

Interest has also focused on the various connections within the brain rather than on localization in a single part of the brain. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies show anatomic abnormalities in a network of neocortical and limbic regions and interconnecting white-matter tracts. A meta-analysis of studies using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine white matter found that 2 networks of white-matter tracts are reduced in schizophrenia.

In the Edinburgh High-Risk Study, brain imaging showed reductions in whole-brain volume and in left and right prefrontal and temporal lobe volumes in 17 of 146 people who were at high genetic risk for schizophrenia. The changes in prefrontal lobes were associated with increasing severity of psychotic symptoms.

In a meta-analysis of 27 longitudinal MRI studies comparing schizophrenic patients with control subjects, schizophrenia was associated with structural brain abnormalities that progressed over time. The abnormalities identified included loss of whole-brain volume in both gray and white matter and increases in lateral ventricular volume.

These findings are of interest more for research purposes than for clinical application.

Neurotransmitter system abnormalities

Abnormalities of the dopaminergic system are thought to exist in schizophrenia. The first clearly effective antipsychotic drugs, chlorpromazine and reserpine, were structurally different from each other, but they shared antidopaminergic properties. Drugs that diminish the firing rates of mesolimbic dopamine D2 neurons are antipsychotic, and drugs that stimulate these neurons (eg, amphetamines) exacerbate psychotic symptoms.

Hypodopaminergic activity in the mesocortical system, leading to negative symptoms, and hyperdopaminergic activity in the mesolimbic system, leading to positive symptoms, may coexist. (Negative and positive symptoms are defined elsewhere; see Presentation.) Moreover, the newer antipsychotic drugs block both dopamine D2 and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) receptors.

Clozapine, perhaps the most effective antipsychotic agent, is a particularly weak dopamine D2 antagonist. Thus, other neurotransmitter systems, such as norepinephrine, serotonin, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), are undoubtedly involved.

Much research focuses on the N -methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subclass of glutamate receptors because NMDA antagonists, such as phencyclidine and ketamine, can lead to psychotic symptoms in healthy subjects. Some researchers consider schizophrenia, in large part, a hypoglutamatergic disorder.

Inflammation and immune function

Immune function is disturbed in schizophrenia. Overactivation of the immune system (eg, from prenatal infection or postnatal stress) may result in overexpression of inflammatory cytokines and subsequent alteration of brain structure and function. For example, schizophrenic patients have elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines that activate the kynurenine pathway, by which tryptophan is metabolized into kynurenic and quinolinic acids; these acids regulate NMDA receptor activity and may also be involved in dopamine regulation.

Insulin resistance and metabolic disturbances, which are common in the schizophrenic population, have also been linked to inflammation. Thus, inflammation might be related both to the psychopathology of schizophrenia and to metabolic disturbances seen in patients with schizophrenia.

Duan Xian Xiang . This analysis falls into a basic methodological error. Such measurements are taken after onset. We know from work done by various scientists, see for example Idaghdour et al., 2008, that allelles on genes are changed on a daily basis by environment. therefore these biological findings are indicative of response to environment and are not causative. See my own work on research errors into schizophrenia gene method research. Schizophrenia itself is caused by deviant family interactions that prevent schema formation in the developing child that does not become manifest until early adulthood, due to how we structure our psychosocial and physical environment; it is an onset due to stress as a result of having to make life changing decisions and not having the framework about how to go about structuring information that enables appropriate decision making.

Valerie Saunders

I'm not saying that innate mental programs or genes don't change, and the environment after birth certainly has a lot to do with schizophrenia.

Valerie Saunders

If a person chooses to satisfy himself with fantasy under great pressure, like a man's daughter dies, and if he wants his daughter to be alive, Then if he fulfills the wish with fantasy, the mind is too strong, and at last there may be auditory hallucinations, who seem to hear her voice or see her, In this case, even if he does not have the gene, he may develop schizophrenia.

Valerie Saunders

Would it be better to replace the "schema" with the "program"?

Valerie Saunders

You mean that "the gene" is the result, not the cause?

Valerie Saunders

I think they are each other as the cause and the result. Environmental influences even build genes, genes are passed on to the next generation, genes affect behavior after birth, and the environment affects genes.

Duan Xian Xiang Gene expression is the result not the cause.

Valerie Saunders

Do you think "gene" is a program? Do they look like programs that creatures inherited from the previous generation? Like a solidified program in a computer chip?

Joseph A. Sprute

I think both are right

Why does biology not see "genes" as programs? If the gene is the program, you can treat the gene as a continuous sequence. Now biology knows that many genes work together, but it doesn't seem to focus on the order of the genes yet, and I don't know much about biology.

Thank you Duan Xian Xiang. I will try to understand your article.

Duan Xian Xiang I have never stated or suggested that genes are programmes. they are structures that contain information about ourselves. They are individual structures and cannot be used as a continuous sequence. Together they work to cause us to function in certain ways.

Genes consist of guanin, sitosin, tymin, adenin, urasil, etc. If they are proceed to genes expression, they look like "resemble" to computer language to be translated to human language. For examples : Cobol, Basic, Pascal, etc.

Valerie Saunders

So, do these genes work in concert? How does it work like a complex system?

Duan Xian Xiang , with respect, I think it might be a good idea for you to read a book on gene structure, written by a geneticist, in order to clarify your ideas. I dont think I can say enough in this forum to clarify issues. Sorry.

Valerie Saunders

Thank you, you are right

Duan Xian Xiang INRE: '"genes" as programs'.

Depends on how nuanced a person's mental model of 'program' is: "How NOT To Think About Cells" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPhvic-eqbc ). with that warning in place, humans do use visualizations (simplifications) to form intuition about phenomena in the world - so although simplistic "Molecular animation – Tech Talk by Drew Berry" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbyzEiBvbXw ). So, if the sense of the word 'program' is taken as meaning 'some algorithm taking in information and managing state', then there are vast intertwined algorithms at various levels, and their substrates are chemical, molecular, enzymatic, and even 'electrical': "The electrical blueprints that orchestrate life" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XheAMrS8Q1c ). Keep in mind these examples are only the most basic molecular mechanism, and are nowhere near the complexity of DNA, tRNA, mRNA signaling and production systems.

Using a modern digital computers as an analogy is a very limited analogy, the world is full of natural and human recursive control systems which operate on mixes of various substrates - chemical, mechanical, analog electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, etc. - the camshaft in a car engine has the 'algorithm' baked into the shape and arrangement of the cams, for example.

We are probably only a few baby steps into a thousand mile journey into identifying and understanding the full picture of biology, if we ever can.

Michael John Patrick

You said it very well. Let me clarify, by "program" I do not mean computer programs, computer programs are just one of it. Others, such as psychological programs, economic programs, historical programs, and so on. It refers to the operational behavior or action instructions in the form of a sequence, and is not necessarily required to be the same as a computer program, because it is only used to name some behavior or operation with similar characteristics. For example, "the earth revolves around the sun," which is a program closer to "behavior." Using this concept is to abstract the movement or change process of things, and then pay attention to this abstract thing. This is also why I think the "program" can be used in psychology, economics, biology, history, sociology, and political science. "Program" here is no longer a computer program, it is just some similar to the computer program, with this name just to achieve the purpose of the law of abstract things, similar to the role of mathematics.

I know these systems run on different bases, so, I think there are different programs, not just computer programs.

Michael John Patrick

In biology, psychology, history and even economics, the role of mathematics seems to be limited, so what is to describe the laws of these disciplines? Mathematics is obviously not very effective, is there possible another tool to describe the rules? To some complex science scholars, they think there is this tool, they call it "instruction," "process," "algorithm," "information," etc., and I call it "program." That is to say, in addition to mathematics, there is another tool to describe the laws of science. We have always thought that there is only mathematics, so many scientists use mathematics in the field of social science. Is it possible that these subjects need another non-mathematical tool?

Duan Xian Xiang INRE:"... the role of mathematics seems to be limited".

'Mathematics' is just manipulating symbols, with operations and transformations by other symbols - it's relationship with the real world is only approximate, so by definition it is 'limited' ( Gödel ). So, any 'non-mathematics' could only be the inverse set of mathematics, so 'non-mathematics' would be, by default, 'mathematical'. The word 'tool' implies some sort of repeatable cognitive model which can organize the flow of information, so a 'non-mathematical tool' is, IMHO, an oxymoron.