Recent Advances in the Neurobiology of Schizophrenia
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 27-39.
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Schizophrenia strikes one percent of the population worldwide, irrespective of race, geography, culture, or economic status. The disease generally compromises the reproductive success of afflicted individuals, and so its steady rate of occurrence, at least since it was first described around the beginning of the twentieth century, is intriguing. The complexity of its genetic basis certainly explains, at least in part, why the disorder has not disappeared from the gene pool. The continued presence of the disease, more obviously, reflects the difficulty of finding effective therapy. This difficulty may ultimately be circumvented, however, as more is learned about the specific genetic alleles, environmental influences, and neurodevelopmental programs that conspire to yield what was originally referred to as the "fragmented mind."
