Scientists Discover The First Single Gene to Directly Cause Mental Illness

Genetics is rarely as straightforward as a single gene driving a lone health outcome. But a new study has uncovered what could be a rare exception.

Changes to just one gene, called , have now been tied to psychiatric symptoms, including early-onset schizophrenia .

"Our current findings indicate that is the first known gene that, on its own, can cause a mental illness," says co-lead author Johannes Lemke, a geneticist from Leipzig University in Germany.

Mental health disorders, like major depression or schizophrenia, are generally thought to be influenced by hundreds or even thousands of interacting genetic variants . But perhaps that assumption isn't always true.

Recently, strong evidence has found that changes to the gene are associated with early-onset schizophrenia in