Schizophrenia: an update and review.

Schizophrenia is a common complex disorder characterized by psychosis, cognitive dysfunction and negative symptoms, whose etiology involves interactions between both genetic and environmental vulnerability factors. Recently, ongoing research attempting to elucidate the nature of these vulnerability factors has been generating exciting findings. The advances in understanding of environmental risk factors for mental illnesses and in genetic research into mental illnesses will be reviewed. Limitations of the findings and implications of these advances for genetic counseling practice will also be discussed.