World J Psychiatry Ment Health Res | Volume 4, Issue 1 | Review Article | Open Access

Schizophrenia: An Evolutionary Perspective

Nicholson SD*

Department of Health and Wellbeing, North Devon District Hospital, UK

*Correspondance to: Nicholson SD 

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Abstract

Schizophrenia is a major mental illness that is partly genetic in origin. It is present in every human population that has been studied and is thought to have existed throughout history and much of prehistory. This represents an evolutionary puzzle since the expectation would be that such an adverse state would be eliminated by selection pressure. This has prompted the hypothesis that genes associated with the disorder, if not the disorder itself, confer an advantage in terms of advanced cognitive and neurological functioning. Indeed, studies utilizing DNA from Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis and Homo denisova suggest that a tendency to schizophrenia only developed following divergence of modern humans from their nearest hominin relatives. However, there are other significant genetic associations with schizophrenia, such as height, Body Mass Index (BMI) and type 2 diabetes mellitus. These are likely to have been more effective than any putative intellectual superiority in conferring evolutionary advantages, probably due to more efficient energy utilization.

Citation:

Nicholson SD. Schizophrenia: An Evolutionary Perspective. World J Psychiatry Ment Health Res. 2020; 4(1): 1023..

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