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Comment Re:environment, choices, and genetics (Score 1) 222

Ooookay? You're one of those people who like to demand "proof" in exhausting detail in any internet discussion, aren't you. Try plugging "schizophrenia hereditary" into any search engine, such as Google. Here are the first three results:

As can be seen from the graph below, schizophrenia definitely has a very significant genetic component. Those who have a third degree relative with schizophrenia are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as those in the general population. Those with a second degree relative have a several-fold higher incidence of schizophrenia than the general population, and first degree relatives have an incidence of schizophrenia an order of magnitude higher than the general populace.

The causes of schizophrenia are not fully known. However, it appears that schizophrenia usually results from a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Schizophrenia has a strong hereditary component. Individuals with a first-degree relative (parent or sibling) who has schizophrenia have a 10 percent chance of developing the disorder, as opposed to the 1 percent chance of the general population. But schizophrenia is only influenced by genetics, not determined by it. While schizophrenia runs in families, about 60% of schizophrenics have no family members with the disorder. Furthermore, individuals who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia don’t always develop the disease, which shows that biology is not destiny.

Unlike other genetic conditions such as Huntington's or cystic fibrosis, it is believed that no one single gene causes the disease by itself but rather that several genes are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia. While schizophrenia occurs in one percent of the general population, having a history of family psychosis greatly increases the risk. Schizophrenia occurs at roughly ten percent of people who have a first-degree relative with the disorder, i.e., a parent or sibling. However, the highest risk occurs when an identical twin is diagnosed with schizophrenia. The unaffected twin has a roughly 50 percent chance of developing the disorder. The genetic component appears to extend beyond family environment. For example, children with a parent living with schizophrenia who were put up for early adoption still develop schizophrenia at a higher rate than the rest of the of the population.

Further down the page, the US government weighs in:

Scientists have long known that schizophrenia runs in families. The illness occurs in 1 percent of the general population, but it occurs in 10 percent of people who have a first-degree relative with the disorder, such as a parent, brother, or sister. People who have second-degree relatives (aunts, uncles, grandparents, or cousins) with the disease also develop schizophrenia more often than the general population. The risk is highest for an identical twin of a person with schizophrenia. He or she has a 40 to 65 percent chance of developing the disorder. We inherit our genes from both parents. Scientists believe several genes are associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, but that no gene causes the disease by itself.16 In fact, recent research has found that people with schizophrenia tend to have higher rates of rare genetic mutations. These genetic differences involve hundreds of different genes and probably disrupt brain development.

Some of those links include actual cites from scientific studies, by the way. I'm not going to bother locating physical copies of those journals and don't have a pubmed subscription, but you're welcome to look them up if you'd like.

Comment Re:it is not, probably doesn't exist (Score 4, Insightful) 222

Do you actually know anything about psychiatry, or are you just going by this particular article about a study that you think is iffy? Because it's not news that schizophrenia is at least partially hereditary, they've known that for decades. The same is true of bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. The only debate is to what degree they are caused by hereditary versus environment. You can compare it to how diabetes runs in families, but in general can be triggered or not depending on your lifestyle. But some people will develop the disease even if they treat their body like a temple. This study has made the news because they're claiming to have identified the specific genes involved, not because there wasn't already general agreement that there were genes involved in predisposing someone to get schizophrenia.

Comment Much more (Score 1) 252

Then again, I'm now employed programming forms full time instead of part, and for a company that (for reasons that escape me) does not have software to print to instead of printers. You wouldn't believe the stack of paper you go through incrementally moving a bullet to find the thousandth of an inch that looks the best on the actual page.

Comment Re:iPad (Score 1) 233

(I'm very sorry I don't have mod points today, as I'm betting most of this crowd don't get the joke. If it helps, I laughed, loudly.)

Comment Re:Remote driving (Score 3, Interesting) 90

Interestingly, apparently some of the drivers have trained for unfamiliar tracks using... GT4, I think? And Speed had an amusing segment a few years ago where they filmed a driver (Nico Rosburg?) do a virtual run all the way around the track with his eyes closed, with an accompanying feed showing that it would be very nearly a perfect run on the real thing.

Comment Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score 1) 287

I was in group therapy with a man who had been fired from a high powered executive job that he had made his whole life, and his wife had asked for a divorce immediately after, and he had become deeply depressed. Despite the councilor's best efforts, so pointlessly angry that he refused to do anything like applying for a job that he felt was below the level of his previous job. As of his last day of the two month program, he was within a day of being thrown out of his condo. He was a perfectly nice guy, and I felt bad for him, so I gave real thought to inviting him home to stay with us for a couple of weeks. But in the end I let him walk out (after wishing him well, of course, and telling him to call if he had an emergency). I had been in therapy with him three days a week for a month, and KNEW that as long as he was living on my couch, he would do absolutely nothing to fix his situation, and in the end I'd need to kick him out into the same exact situation. I very much hope that he got it together once he experienced living in his car in NJ in February, but there was nothing I would be able to do to actually help him in any real way.

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