Genotype-based prevention of psychosis onset and schizophrenia: a personalized approach in a target population

Abstract

Schizophrenia imposes a significant burden on public health, affecting approximately 25 million individuals worldwide and generating an extensive healthcare burden. It is important to consider that the disease onset in schizophrenia stems from gene-environment interactions. Early interventions in order to prevent schizophrenia are of high clinical interest, and this is where personalized healthcare and medicine comes in. In this article, we bring a genotype-based personalized, preventive perspective to psychosis onset and schizophrenia. Our objective relies on the possibility of making use of a specific gene-environment interaction in the emergence of schizophrenia as a personalized preventive tool. In particular, we discuss screening of a specific AKT1 allelic variation and its interaction with cannabis use as a preventive approach in a target population with early symptoms of psychosis.