If there is not one cure for schizophrenia, there may be many

Source: Seah, C. & Brennand, K., (2020). If there is not one cure for schizophrenia, there may be many.npj Schizophrenia, 6(11), 1-

2. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-020-0101-0

Summary: The diverse causes and characteristics of schizophrenia means that one cure will likely not be possible. To treat schizophrenia, treatments will have to be tailored on an individual basis to each unique case. In addition to that, the focus on treating schizophrenia is to try and prevent it before its onset because after onset many variants of it are not responsive to antipsychotic treatments. To identify one’s risk of getting schizophrenia, biomarkers (a measurable indicator of the likelihood of one getting a certain illness) and schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (a measure of how one’s risk of getting schizophrenia compares to a person with no genetic mutations) can be used. CRISPR-based technology can also be used for genetic screening to see if a genetic mutation is present that can cause schizophrenia in the future. After assessing one’s risk of getting schizophrenia, hiPSCs (human-induced pluripotent stem cells, used to produce stem cells- undifferentiated cells meaning any type and number of cells can be created from it) can produce an unlimited number of neurons from a single person to test how the cells respond to a range of different pharmaceutical treatments which will allow a personalized and effective treatment regimen to be created.