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Core Conceptual Framework of Schizophrenia |
   
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Research in our Center is guided by a vulnerability-stress-protective
factors model of the onset and course of schizophrenia. The idea that predisposing
vulnerabilities interact with subsequent stressors to trigger episodes of symptoms and
disability has proven very useful in the understanding of many physical and mental
disorders. Schizophrenia, with its very heterogenous manifestations of illness course and
poorly understood etiology, can also be fruitfully studied using this heuristic,
multifactorial, and interactive conceptual framework. The IRC Core Conceptual model presumes that predispositional characteristics, some of which probably derive from genetic and neurodevelopmental factors, place certain individuals at greater risk for developing schizophrenia. Various environmental and personal factors, some stressful and others protective, then interact to influence the expression of these predispositions, affecting both the onset and subsequent course of schizophrenia. This vulnerability-stress-protective factors model facilitates an integrative, multidisciplinary approach to research that seeks to sharpen our understanding of the determinants of the initial development of schizophrenic disorders and their subsequent course, and to improve our ability to alter their outcome. |
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