Based on what you have learned in this module, what would you do under the following circumstances:
Your friend has just married the love of their life and they are now thinking about having biological children with their new partner. You know that your friends partner comes from a family where the father and one of 2 siblings is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Your friend expresses concern about the risk of their biological children developing schizophrenia and asks for your advice.
What advice would you give to your friend?
here’s 1 response from student reply Victoria Smith
Friendly advice
There are many factors that play an important role in the risk of developing schizophrenia but Genes and environment have the most impact. Schizophrenia is 8x more likely to be inherited based on genes and environment. However, this doesn’t mean you are destined to develop it. It is important to limit the environmental risks as much as possible. Such as substance abuse, urbanicity, education, social groups etc. Become familiar with the disorder and do you research.
Olivia
If this were my friend, I would tell her that her concerns are valid and reasonable. However, there is no guarantee that the biological child will develop schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a polygenic disorder, meaning it is a genetic disorder caused by a combination of more than one genes. I would tell her that genetics is not the only factor that may influence the development of schizophrenia, and that she should have children with her partner.
