Schizophrenia: social and environmental factors: implications for aetiology

The multifaceted clinical syndrome of schizophrenia continues to unfold bef ore the onset of psychosis, at onset and thereafter. We now know that the o ccurrence of schizophrenia differs quite markedly between groups defined at a social level, such as neighbourhoods, urban-rural dichotomies or ethnic groups. This understanding of longitudinal phenotypes and of variation in i ncidence is allowing research to explore interactions between individuals, their genes, their immediate environments and their social contexts. Curr O pin Psychiatry 14:39-43. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.