Is schizophrenia hereditary?
yes schizophrenia is hereditary., but usually skips a generation. males can be schizophrenic as young as 16 and quite often around 18 to 24. early detection is a good idea. perhaps it would be a good idea to educate yourself about schizophrenia so you may be able to understand your father better, and to help you. today there are a lot of better medications, than when your father was diagnosed. and people today can live a fairly normal life with the proper treatment. schizophrenia also can be severe or mild. try not to worry too much if you get it, as you may never get it at all don”t be afraid if you see some of symptoms of schizophrenia in yourself we all have some of these symptoms but it depends on degree or the severity. you could check with your fathers doctor too that might put u at ease.
People who have a relative with schizophrenia have a greater risk of developing the disorder than the general population. For example, if you have an identical twin with schizophrenia, your chance of having schizophrenia is 50% in contrast to the 1% chance for the public at large. Adoption studies have shown that biological relatives have an increased risk for schizophrenia whereas adoptive relatives have no increased risk. Such studies clearly point to the contribution of a genetic component in the development of schizophrenia. Nongenetic factors can also influence the development of schizophrenia, as evidenced by the fact that, even in people with identical genes (i.e., monozygotic twins), only in about 50% of the cases are both twins ill.
There is no “gene” for schizophrenia. It’s not like having blue eyes. Having a family member with it does increase your chances slightly, but not enough that I’d worry. And with a relative as distant as an uncle, I’d be even less worried. Your risk of getting it is probably about the universal average – 1%. Schizophrenia, like all mental illness, is a complicated mixture of environment and family history.
