In the past thirty years, many discoveries and advancements have been made to further our understanding of the causes of schizophrenia.  Even though much has been discovered about the disease, there is no definitive hypothesis about how and why individuals contract schizophrenia.  There have been hypothesized theories about the causes, but the theory this website focuses on is the Dopamine Hypothesis.  If you would like to find out more about some of the various causes: heritability, abnormal brain development, brain damage, biochemical abnormalities, viral infections and societal factors, here are some handy websites:

 

http://www.mentalhealthcare.org.uk/content/?id=27

http://www.mentalhealthcare.org.uk/content/?id=78

http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_causes_schizophrenia_000047_2.htm

http://www.schizophrenia.com/family/history

http://www.schizophrenia.com/research/surg.gen.2002.htm

This image was taken from www.schizophrenia.com/research/surg.gen.2002.htm