How heritable is schizophrenia?
“I recall reading somewhere that that same “symptoms” would be diagnosed as “Bipolar” in middleclass suburban whites and “Schizophrenia” in other folks (like poor urban blacks)” While that’s interesting, any person living in a gray area between schizophrenia and biopolar disorder is in for a very tough ride, no matter what you label it.
It’s worth pointing out that there is a small but vocal minority of people who insist that schizophrenia is not truly an illness, but rather a definition of behavior outside of accepted norms. Some of these folks go so far as to say that the pathology is in the accepted norms, not the person with schizophrenia, and that the existence of schizophrenia being defined as a disease reflects not on the patients in question, but rather on the sickness of our society and culture. The folks who promote this viewpoint generally come under the catch-all term “anti-psychiatry” – some of them are actually trained, licensed psychiatrists, so it’s a bit of a misnomer – and Davy has linked to such an essay above. My comments, and most of the others in this thread, obviously don’t speak to this kind of formulation. Genetic tests, twin studies, and epidemiologic studies presuppose a certain model of disease that is either validated or invalidated by the study. They do not and cannot validate or invalida
The 10% stat concurs with my research on this. My mom has delusional schizophrenia. She was diagnosed with severe post-partum depression shortly after my youngest brother was born, 15 years ago. She went off her meds about 5 years after that, against doctors’ orders, and stayed off of them until last year, when she was forced back onto them. Her doctor and psychiatrists diagnosed her with schizophrenia at the same time. This news didn’t surprise me at all, as I lived with her for most of those years and I had suspected as much. Originally she took first-generation, typical antipsychotics for her depression. Now she takes second-generation, atypical antipsychotics for her schizophrenia (i.e. Risperidone). Importantly, though, the medication didn’t change because the diagnosis changed; rather it changed because atypical antipsychotics are newer and they have fewer side effects, and thus patients are more likely to stay on them. Many of these drugs are used to treat multiple illnesses, in
To clarify, I’m not saying that “there’s no such thing as ‘schizophrenia'”, only that I’m not sufficiently persuaded that the “Uber-Diagnosers” know what they’re talking about. I gladly concede that things like hallucinations and false beliefs exist, but I see these as “stuffy nose” kinds of things that don’t necessarily always add up to “bird flu.” So painting me as an “anti-psychiatry luddite” is a bit off. (And I freely admit that my brain doesn’t seem to work the way “normal” brains are supposed to, and that I’m often unhappy with how my brain works regardless of whether it’s “normal” or not.) And the stuff about “atypical antipsychotics” having fewer side-effects is a marketing gimmick not an established fact. (Heroin was supposed to be a cure for morphine addiction in 1898.) It’s too late now for me to go into it, but if nobody else has when I’m back here again I’ll point to some documentation.
