The progressive development of pathogenetic models of schizophrenia pertaining to neurodevelopment, is shedding new light on aspects of contiguity, already recognized in the past, with intellectual developmental disorders.
The psychiatric-specific aspects of Fragile X syndrome have not yet been clarified, particularly in relation to age and genetic structure. The psychopathology of relatives who are carriers of the permutations is little known. The research group of Lidia Gabis of Central Weinburg of Israel has recently tried to bring new knowledge to this field.
Some epidemiological studies indicate that cigarette smoking is a frequent problem in people with intellectual disabilities. It may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric disorders and significantly restrict the drug treatments.
It was recently discovered that variations in the number of copies of some sequences of the genome on the short arm of chromosome 16, already correlated with autism, are associated with the possibility of developing schizophrenia. In previous studies the deletion of a neighboring area was found to be an independent risk factor for the development of intellectual disabilities. Is it possible that there is a basic common epigenetic to the three conditions?
For many years scholars have worked to understand which genes may be responsible for the clinical manifestations of Down syndrome and to improve the conditions and life expectancy of the individuals who are affected.