Discovering the molecular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic, disabling illness that affects about 0.32% of the world's population (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), 2020). It typically begins in adolescence and worsens over time, reducing life expectancy by approximately 14.5 years (Hjorthøj et al., 2017). Due to its early onset, chronic nature, and associated deficits, schizophrenia ranks among the top ten causes of disability worldwide (Marder & Cannon, 2019). In addition, it is estimated to be the seventh most costly disease in terms of care and loss of productivity (GBD 2017 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators et al., 2018). This entails an estimated annual cost of around 3.5 billion dollars in countries such as Spain and up to 102 billion dollars, according to the most pessimistic studies, in countries such as the United States (Chong et al., 2016) taking into account direct costs (treatments, damages, accidents, etc.) and indirect costs (loss of human capital). Additionally, in 2022 the most commonly used atypical antipsychotics in Spain (risperidone and olanzapine) were among the top 8 drugs that generated the highest expenditure, with an economic cost of around 347 million euros (Ministerio de Sanidad, 2022). This explains why research on this disease is a priority objective of global health systems.