Cecilie Koldbæk Lemvigh defends her PhD thesis

Title

‘Delineating Heritable and Environmental Risk Factors in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Nation-Wide Twin Study’.

Time and place

Monday 22 March 2021 at 10:00.

Click here to attend the defence.

Assessment committee

  • Associate professor Signe Allerup Vangkilde, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chair)

  • Professor Neeltje van Haren, Erasmus MC, the Netherlands

  • Professor Paola Dazzan, King’s College, United Kingdom

Supervisors

  • Associate Professor Birgitte Fagerlund, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (principal supervisor)

  • Birte Y. Glenthøj, MD, DMSc, Professor, CNSR & CINS, Mental Health Centre Glostrup, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

  • Christos Pantelis, NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, Foundation Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Scientific Director of the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia & visiting professor CNSR/CINS

  • Rachel Brouwer, Assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, UMC Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, University, the Netherlands

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a highly heritable disorder associated with a wide range of cognitive deficits; however, the pathological processes underlying the co-occurrence between psychosis and impaired cognition are poorly understood. The overall aim of the PhD-project was to examine genetic and environmental influences on schizophrenia and cognition using a large, highly representative, nation-wide twin cohort, combining detailed clinical data with register-based information. We demonstrated that several specific cognitive functions are heritable and (genetically) associated with schizophrenia liability, providing further evidence for cognitive deficits as core symptoms of schizophrenia related to the underlying pathological processes of the disease. Moreover, we identified childhood trauma and cannabis use as important environmental risk factors for the vulnerability and clinical manifestation of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Schizophrenia is a complex disorder with large heterogeneity in the clinical presentation, and the present findings point to a complex underlying etiology, involving multiple distinct (genetic and environmental) processes.