25 Years of Breakthroughs: 2008 Genetics Study Sheds Light on the Causes of Psychosis

Arturas Petronis, M.D., Ph.D. from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, led researchers in a study, discovering that biochemical (or ‘epigenetic’) changes can impact the ‘expression’ of genes common in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Focusing his work on the genomes of identical twins (who share the same exact sequences of DNA) where only one twin developed schizophrenia, Petronis and his team analyzed 1,800,000 spots on the epigenome and were able to see the changes that occurred within. What he discovered helped prove that epigenetic changes – changes that affect gene expression without altering the underlying DNA - were important to the development of schizophrenia. This groundbreaking discovery opened new avenues of research to identify the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Read more about this research in the article from our 2008 Breakthroughs publication

Read a scientific abstract about Dr. Petronis' research

PsychCentral featured an article about Dr. Petronis' study

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