Environmental and genetic affects and schizophrenia

the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in the aetiology of schizophrenia. Graeme Gordon ...poor Ophelia, divided from herself and her fair judgement without the which we arepictures or mere beasts... Shakespeare, Hamlet The term 'schizophrenia' (a splitting of psychic function, Strange, 1992) was first introduced in 1911 by Eugen Bleuler to denote the breakdown of integration between emotions, thought and actions. The symptoms of this disease are heterogeneous and there is still disagreement about diagnosis. …

…by a study Susser et al. (1996). In an investigation into the high incidence of schizophrenia in those born in the Netherlands at a particular point during World War Two, Susser et al. (1996) found that exposure to famine was correlated to risk of schizophrenia. At the end of World War Two a Nazi blockade caused a famine in the Netherlands. Susser et al. (1996) found that the risk of developing schizophrenia increased for people born between 10/15/45 and 12/31/45.