Ciliary neurotrophic factor null mutation and schizophrenia in a Swedish population

According to the maldevelopmental hypothesis, the neurotrophic factor system represents an important area which might be genetically and neurochemically involved in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenic psychoses. Patients suffering from schizophrenic psychoses and control persons were genotyped for a null mutation of the ciliary neurotrophic factor gene. There were no significant differences in the allelic and genotypic distributions in the total schizophrenic and control samples. However, there was a negative association with a family history of psychosis. Thus, it cannot be excluded that this genetic variant represents a vulnerability marker for specific schizophrenic subtypes. The development of valid diagnostic instruments based on biological criteria is crucial for schizophrenia research; more homogenous subgroups are more likely to represent distinct nosological entities than the heterogenous group of diseases presently categorized as schizophrenia.