All over the world today disease takes a hold of a person’s life and may never let go. Schizophrenia is among some of the worst diseases in the world, taking the lives of its victims and turning them into people their closest family members may not recognize. This chronic mental disorder is branded by turbulences in the emotion, perception, and thinking of humans. Hallucinations and erratic behavior are very common symptoms of this disease that actually means “split mind”. From medicine to therapy, their everyday lives are consumed by this disease. Schizophrenia changes the way these individuals view the world around them. Interactions become difficult, independent living and personal hygiene can almost be nonexistent. This must be a devastating and sad and expensive diagnosis for anyone and their surrounding family. The following facts are on what supports the nature side of this argument because there are various studies done on the nature of schizophrenia, but not so much on the nurturing side. The evidence available shows that nurturing only aids in treatment and personal happiness.

The research done can help the people who are affected by schizophrenia because it could either find a reason why the nurturing background is important in each case or if there is anything to be done about the nature of a person suffering from schizophrenia. My sources offer insight into both sides, varying with many different studies. Throughout my research I have begun to lean towards believing that the nature is what generally causes the disease and the individual nurturing later plays a role. Through prefrontal cortex studies, to sleep spindle research, the information that I have gathered is incredibly useful and very reliable information. The scientist may all believe that it is all due to our DNA and genetic codes. This is a debate existing all over the world, and I think it is important to people suffering from schizophrenia to have at least some hope to a normal life. People with schizophrenia cannot run from this disease because the nature of it matters so very much.

There are very many articles supporting how human nature affects schizophrenia in people all over world. Articles written from Ivy League professors, and top medical centers that support this acquisition. Schizophrenia is a difficult subject to study, with not much being known about the cause or origin of the disease. It is obvious the nature of schizophrenia is a huge root of the disease from early on in life. The information I have compiled is a way to help educate people all over the world of the risks and implications of this disease, although it cannot be prevented at this time, it can be helped and treated so the patient can live as full of a life as possible. 

In a news article written for Science Daily, scientists take a look into research conducted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. They discovered that a sleep abnormality that involves sleep spindles is linked to patients who suffer from schizophrenia. Sleep spindles are spurts of brain activity during non-REM sleep that last less than a second and also play a role in memory consolidation. This study shows that instead of being a symptom of schizophrenia, sleep spindles may actually contribute to the cognitive defects and frustrating situations faced by these patients. Meaning that instead of happening because of schizophrenia, schizophrenia is happening because of these sleep spindles. The authority of this article is excellent being that all 4 of the authors, Robert Stickgold, Shaun M. Purcell, Jen Q. Pan, and Dara S. Manoach are all well affiliated doctors. Each one is a part of the Board Institute of Harvard and the Stanley Center Psychiatric Research. The Authors who write for ScienceDaily know exactly what they need to do to get the message from this journal into the minds of everyday people. This sleep study is considered to be “one of the most exciting advances in sleep research over the last decade”, with using electroencephalograms to measure the brains electrical activity the scientist can see individuals sleep spindles and make a connection between the higher sleep disturbances association with schizophrenic patients and the nature of their condition. 

Benedict Carey wrote Scientists Move Closer to Understanding Schizophrenia’s Cause with the intent of changing the way people look at schizophrenia. Scientists from The Broad Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School started to study synaptic pruning and its relation to schizophrenia in adults. While studying the prefrontal cortex of humans, scientist found similarities between this part of the brains of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The scientist put together the phases of genes known to be involved in the development of the disease and tied it to the natural process of synaptic pruning, which is when the brain sheds weak or redundant connections between neurons as it matures. This reports shows that people who carry genes that tend to quicken synaptic pruning also have an advanced risk of emerging with schizophrenia. This report is written for the New York Times, a newspapers that dates all the way back to before 1850.  The reporters that write articles for The New York Times are talented and respectful people. Since this piece was published about a year ago, the research that is done on schizophrenia was just starting to hit its peak and that makes it reliable information on the nature of schizophrenia.

Emily Deans is a psychiatrist studying the biologic basis of mental illness. The role of genes and history in mental illnesses has been an ongoing battle for years and no one can seem to crack the question yet. In Nature and Nurture, Deans speaks on how the prefrontal cortex plays a role in studies done on the brain and the genes and risks of families with multiple cases of schizophrenia. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for planning, memory, predicting outcome, and even controlling your impulsivity. She even goes as far to say that mental illness has some of the highest genetic loading of any common illness and that schizophrenia is among the highest risk of genetic diseases. While claiming that people with schizophrenia have decreased prefrontal cortical efficiency, meaning that when you have an unproductive cortex, it is very challenging to participate in everyday life. By using scientific studies and actual results, the context of this article is useful and efficient. These articles prove that something different is going on in the brains of schizophrenic adults and even children.

Johnathon Flint and Marcus Munafo wrote an article called Schizophrenia: Genesis of a complex disease on a study done by the Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Flint is a part of the Well come Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and Marcus Munafo attends the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol. By writing an article on this study, it shows that their purpose is to inform their colleagues and offer insight into the genetics of the disease. They are backing up the nature of schizophrenia with their colleges work by talking about the largest genome-wide analysis of schizophrenia that has been done so far. Schizophrenia is a disease that is hard to research and is not done by many people. So since this is from just 2 and ½ years ago it is still good statistics and information. 

Biological insights from 108 schizophrenia-associated genetic loci is a scientific article about a genome-wide association study of people with and without schizophrenia. This study is the largest known molecular genetic study of schizophrenia so it supports the nature of schizophrenia because they test the risk loci. This study is done by the Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium(PCG) is a group of investigators from around the world that conduct mega analyses of genome-wide data for all kinds of psychiatric disorders. The bias for this article is strong because of the work done by the PGC group. They automatically look for the science behind a disease, and then research it. So they do not consider the nurture side of psychiatric diseases as often. This is a good source for proving that nature has a lot to do with schizophrenia.

PCG put on the largest genetic study of mental illness ever done, finding 128 gene variants found to be associated with schizophrenia in 108 distinct locations in the human genome      (Makin p.3). This study was a collaboration of more than 300 scientists from a total of 35 different countries, together they compared whole genomes from nearly 37,000 people with schizophrenia and over 113,000 people without the disorder. A genome is a haploid set of chromosomes in a microorganisms that exists throughout all of the cells in the body. This study included tallying known common mutations in the chromosome pairs and noting them between the people who have schizophrenia versus those who do not. This study proves the nature of schizophrenia argument because it identifies mutations that cause illness and can pinpoint specific genes that can be studied further. These studies are all important because they can help scientist and doctors find better treatments and be able to improve the quality of life people have who are living with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia: From genetics to physiology at last is an article written by Ryan Dhindsa and David Goldstein. Together they identify a set of genetic variations that seem to be majorly associated with the neurobiology development of schizophrenia. The authors speak on the difficulty of finding the biological foundations of schizophrenia and why it is so important to do so. Goldstein and Dhindsa write about the Genome-wide association studies that have identified associations between genetic variants and schizophrenia. They conclude that the strong risk association for schizophrenia is in the major histocompatibility complex, which is a region on our sixth chromosome that holds genes involved in acquired immunity. This study lead to questions involving variations in Chromosome 4(C4). They know that humans have two forms of C4, C4A and C4B. In these chromosomes there are multiple genes varying from person to person, whether they are short or long, they have identified a gene copy number in the C4 gene expressions levels that directly relate to the association of schizophrenia. One day scientist can use this information to work on the genes involved and maybe be able to prevent the development of schizophrenia. 

When you are viewing all the research done on the nature of schizophrenia it seems silly to think that the nurturing of these humans with the genetic defects associated with schizophrenia even matters. Luckily for them, it does. From being in your mother’s womb the vitamins that she takes, or even how much she laughs can make a difference almost as great as the ones the genes make. Treatment of this disease is incredibly important as well. Depending on if you are taking the correct medicine and not harming your body with drugs or alcohol, the patients of schizophrenia can live a normal life and uphold a job and a home. It is terribly sad when these individuals lose control of their minds due to hallucinations and false accounts, but if you have a strong system behind you, you can prevent that from happening.

The book, The Psyche and Schizophrenia: The bond between Affect and Logic, written by Luc Ciompi takes a stance from his personal experiences. In this book Luc Ciompi pulls together his theories and notes that he put together while working daily with Schizophrenic patients. In the first four chapters he speaks in theoretical terms, and offers insight into these theories. From “the relationship between Psychoanalysis and systems theory” to investigating “consciousness and its relations to language” this book allows everyone to learn what Luc Ciompi saw in his patients. Luc Ciompi is a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist, in Switzerland, once being the medical director of the socio-psychiatric university clinic in Berne and the co-chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of Berne Even Ciompi’s bias works with him towards his purpose of informing his readers. Now even though he mentions the nurturing of patients with schizophrenia he cannot avoid the topic of genetics that people with schizophrenia are born with.  

Environmental Connections: A Deeper look into Mental Illness is an article published on Environmental Health Perspectives written by Charles W. Schmidt. In this article Schmidt addresses all types of ways that life experiments can increase mental illnesses, by working through 10 sub categories all in one category called everything but the Gene. In these categories Schmidt offers logic into the nurturing of a mental illness and one of its main categories is “Case in Point: Schizophrenia”. Ranging from obesity stress to laughter allergies, he covers all the bases. In Case in point: Schizophrenia he talks about how urban birth can increase chances of schizophrenia by 50%.  For example, even when you are in your mothers’ womb the fetus can be effected by maternal starvation. Schmidt did received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Connecticut and then a master’s degree in public health from the University of Massachusetts. He then became a toxicologist with an environmental consulting firm. Charles Schmidt is a freelance science writer who specializes in health, but since he has no medical background and does no true research and/or experiments his claim is unreliable and does not work in facts about the nurturing of schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia is a disease that effects as many as 50 million people worldwide. From young adults to middle aged men and women, this disease affects their everyday life and the lives of their closest family members. From genes inherited from your parents to the sleep spindles that happen in your brain at night, schizophrenia deems to take over the lives of the people equipped with these problems. With symptoms ranging from behavioral problems incoherent speech to hallucinations and paranoia, the patient can end up suffering day in and day out. This disease is hard to tackle, and most people never do, but there are amazing psychiatrist and scientists that put time into studying the background of this disease. Nature vs Nurture shows up in almost every detail of our lives, and this also applies to schizophrenia. 
