[The etiology of schizophrenia]

Research conducted in recent years represents a new dawn of knowledge for the risk factors of schizophrenia, and genome-wide approaches have revolutionized the field of genetic mapping of schizophrenia. The aggregate genetic data increasingly support a combination of rare and common genetic variation in schizophrenia, a major role for polygenic inheritance, and a genetic overlap (pleiotropy) of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder and autism. A main challenge for the field is the translation of established genetic associations into a better pathophysiological understanding of schizophrenia. The current and upcoming resequencing programs - both exomes (all exons) and full genomes - and genome-wide transcriptional analyses will allow a more thorough dissection of the molecular genetics of the disorder.