Instead, researchers work within widely held theories that genetic inheritance plays a strong role, with a multitude of possible events influencing the onset of the disease. These include genetic, anatomical and biochemical factors as well as psychological, social, and environmental circumstances. In this section, broad overviews will be cited with more in-depth exploration given in future issues of the newsletter. There is no question that genetic predisposition plays a strong role in schizophrenia. The problem facing researchers is that the genetic aberrations may be on multiple chromosomal sites.
New research continues to support a genetic basis for schizophrenia.
Other anatomical differences have been observed in the brains of patients with schizophrenia, although researchers are not sure which irregularities produce specific outcomes. For example, as a group, patients with schizophrenia have larger ventricles, which are cavities in the brain filled with spinal fluid, which contains nutrients, hormones, and white blood cells. Patients with larger ventricles tend to have an increased prominence of negative symptoms. Another possible anatomical factor influencing schizophrenia may be the reduction in the brain's cerebral cortex volume. One explanatory theory is that the connections between the brain cells are pruned before birth, causing the brain's cells to pack closer together to communicate with each other.