Grant: Operating Grant

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a major psychiatric disease that has a life-time prevalence of approximately 1%, and costs up to $4 billion dollars per year to the Canadian health care system. Occurrence of SCZ in family suggests unique vulnerability factors (genes) running in families lead to the development of the disease. Although several studies have been carried out to identify these factors, the results have been mixed. In this study we propose to examine phenotypes (traits) that can be defined more precisely within SCZ patients. We will analyse whether any genetic factors predict response to antipsychotic medication (Pharmacogenetics). This work will guide clinicians in choosing the right medication for an individual patient based on the vulnerability factor(s) they are carrying. Other traits we will study in SCZ patients include age of onset of the illness, and number of affected family members. Furthermore, marijuana use appears to trigger onset of SCZ earlier and create more severe symptoms. We will incorporate marijuana use as a contributing factor in our statistical calculations. All the above analyses will be carried out by precisely analyzing the sequence of nucleotides (DNA sequencing) in individual genes among our SCZ patients. Detailed studies of these SCZ traits will provide the best opportunity to advance our understanding of the complexity and causes of the disease.