Customer Reviews

Schizophrenia Genesis: The Origins of Madness (Series of Books in Psychology)

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The overwhelming stress that a family experiences as a result of the diagnosis of a psychotic disorder is beyond words. One thing that can help is to learn as much about the disease as possible. Although a cure for schizophrenia has yet to be found, Gottesman has successfully outlined this disease in an understandable and informative book. It has provided me with a much better understnding of a disease with an incredible social stigma.

In this book, the author proposes the diathesis-stressor model of schizophrenia inheritability. This means that certain genes are activated by an environmental stressor such as drugs or trauma. He negates the environmental model for schizophrenia as well as the strictly Mendelian model. People who have close relatives with schizophrenia are more likely to pass down the genetic markers for this illness.

Citing adoption studies, he notes that children of schizophrenics who are adopted by non-schizophrenic parents have a higher likelihood of developing the disease than the general population. Concomitantly, children of parents who do not have schizophrenia, when adopted by parents with schizophrenia, have no more likelihood of developing the illness than the general population.

He looks at the properties of certain drugs that have a propensity to bring about schizophrenia and notes that they all have dopamine stimulating properties.

This is a very good book for anyone interested in schizophrenia. It can be somewhat technical so a background in psychology, social work, psychiatry or neuroscience is helpful. However, it is still accessible to anyone who has a specific interest in this illness. Another good book that is less technical is E. Fuller Torey's book, Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Patients, and Providers.