The genomics of schizophrenia: Shortcomings and solutions

Due to recent advances in human genomic technologies, there have been explosive interests and extensive research on the genomics of schizophrenia, a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by social cognitive deficits, hallucinations, and delusions. These new technologies, including next-generation sequencing (NGS), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-associated nuclease 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) genome editing platform are capable of interrogating and editing the genome directly. In the past few years, these efforts have led to the identification of important loci and genes susceptible to schizophrenia. The findings have increased our understanding of the underlying genetic causes of schizophrenia and aided in the development of new approaches for more effectively diagnosing and treating schizophrenia. Despite the substantial progress, there are several unanswered questions about the genomics of schizophrenia, and there are a number of potential shortcomings in the current literature considering the complexity of the disease and limits of the current technologies. In the present review, we assessed the existing literature on the genomics of schizophrenia, identifying the strengths and study design shortcomings from the following aspects: elucidation of the pathogenesis, early risk prediction and diagnosis, and the treatment of schizophrenia. Moreover, we have proposed solutions to overcome the shortcomings of past studies. Lastly, we have discussed the importance of developing multidisciplinary teams and global research groups in order to improve the lives of schizophrenic patients globally.