Environment and inheritance: opposing forces?
High risk of schizophrenia requires high genetic predisposition to develop schizophrenia, plus an environmental trigger. A schizophrenic family environment is commonly believed to represent this trigger. The hypothesis is presented here that, on the contrary, a high predisposition to schizophrenia in significant others protects against overt illness. The trigger may be the predominance around the index individual of significant others with low predisposition to develop schizophrenia.
D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*; D012931:Social Environment