Blood-based Biomarkers for Personalised Medicine Applications in Schizophrenia

Abstract

The findings described in this thesis add to the evidence for peripheral alterations in schizophrenia and suggest that distinct molecular endophenotypes in schizophrenia patients may be associated with the disease pathophysiology or response to treatment.

This research contributes to de-convoluting the complexity of schizophrenia and drug response mechanisms. Potential applications of these findings in personalised medicine approaches include identification of patient subgroups more likely to respond to a particular antipsychotic drug or adjunctive treatment, and developing decision rules for continuation or termination of a selected treatment.