Comments: Schizophrenia isn't Genetic
Here's my thinking on this subject: Schizophrenia absolutly is genetic (you can't have the illness without the genes) but environmental factors can bring out the genetics (you can have the genes without having the illness).
I know a couple people who have fought in war, and when they came back they had bipolar disorder. If they hadn't been in war, I think that the chances of them devolping the illness would have been a lot less...which points to the suggestion that environmental factors can bring out illness.
On the other hand, I know plenty of people (myself included) that weren't at all trautmatized in any way, but developed schizophrenia or bipolar anyway...which leads to the conclusion that environmental factors aren't always the cause.
Whichever way, I think that medication is for sure needed, regardless of which way the illness was brought out. There's no such thing as having schizophrenia and only needing to be on meds for a short length of time.
But I do agree that there needs to be ways to treat schizophrenia other than just with meds. Individual and group therapy are of course nessesary and critical to success.
Posted by Gwen Davis at December 5, 2005 01:17 PM