If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, please hear this clearly: schizophrenia is a complex brain-based condition. It is not caused by character flaws, family failings, weak faith, or any choice the person made.
Like most serious mental health conditions, schizophrenia emerges from a combination of factors. Let us walk through what the research actually shows.
1. Genetics — A Major Factor
Schizophrenia has a strong genetic component. Twin and family studies estimate the heritability at around 60–80%. This means a significant portion of vulnerability runs in families:
If one identical twin has schizophrenia, the other has about a 50% chance of also developing it
If a parent or sibling has schizophrenia, the risk for other close family members is about 10 times higher than the general population
However, most people with a family history never develop schizophrenia, and many people who do develop it have no clear family history
There is no single "schizophrenia gene." Research has identified hundreds of genetic variants, each with small effects, that together shape vulnerability. Some rare genetic variants have larger effects, but these explain only a minority of cases.
2. Brain Differences
Schizophrenia involves real, measurable differences in brain structure and function:
Differences in the size of certain brain regions
Differences in how neurotransmitter systems (especially dopamine and glutamate) function
Differences in how brain networks communicate during thinking, perception, and emotion
These are not "damage" in the simple sense — they are differences in how the brain is built and how it processes information. Antipsychotic medications work by adjusting these neurotransmitter systems.
3. Pregnancy and Early Life Factors
Some factors during pregnancy and early life are associated with slightly higher risk:
Maternal infections during pregnancy (especially flu or other viral infections)
Complications during birth (oxygen deprivation, premature birth)
Maternal severe stress or malnutrition during pregnancy
Advanced paternal age
These are statistical associations across populations, not direct causes for any individual person or family.
4. Adolescent and Young Adult Factors
Schizophrenia most often emerges in late adolescence or early adulthood. Some factors during this period appear to interact with underlying vulnerability:
Heavy cannabis use — especially during adolescence — has been shown in multiple large studies to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, particularly in those with genetic vulnerability
Severe stress or trauma during this developmental window
Migration and social adversity — large studies have shown migrants and some ethnic minority groups have higher rates, likely related to social stress, discrimination, and isolation rather than ethnicity itself
What Does NOT Cause Schizophrenia
This needs to be said clearly:
Bad parenting does not cause schizophrenia. The cruel and false "schizophrenogenic mother" theory of the 1940s has been thoroughly disproven and rejected. No mother caused her child's schizophrenia.
Jinn possession is not the same as schizophrenia. While Islam acknowledges the reality of jinn, schizophrenia is a recognised medical illness that responds to medical treatment. Misdiagnosing schizophrenia as a spiritual problem has caused enormous harm — delaying medical care that could have prevented serious deterioration.
Weak imaan does not cause schizophrenia. Many sisters with schizophrenia have deep, sincere faith.
The person did not bring this on herself. Schizophrenia is not a punishment, not a choice, not a failure of will.
What This Means for You
Understanding what contributes to schizophrenia is about removing blame, not assigning it. The person living with schizophrenia did not choose this. Her family did not cause this. The illness is real, brain-based, and not anyone's fault.
What can help is early treatment, good medical care, family education, community support, and the kind of compassion that sees the person beyond the diagnosis.
A Closing Reflection
Allah created each soul with care and intention, and trials come in many forms. The Quran reminds us: "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger, and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient" (Quran 2:155). Living with schizophrenia, or loving someone who does, is among the heavier trials of this life. But Allah does not waste any patience, any prayer, any quiet act of care.
May Allah grant healing, dignity, and the warmth of community to every sister and brother who lives with schizophrenia. May He bless the families who love them, give patience to those who care for them, and lift the heavy weight of stigma so that they may be seen for who they truly are — beloved creations of the Most Merciful. Aameen.
Sources & Further Reading
Owen MJ, Sawa A, Mortensen PB. "Schizophrenia." The Lancet, 388(10039):86–97, 2016.
World Health Organization. Schizophrenia.
Sullivan PF, Kendler KS, Neale MC. "Schizophrenia as a complex trait: evidence from a meta-analysis of twin studies." Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(12):1187–1192, 2003.
Trubetskoy V, et al. "Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia." Nature, 604(7906):502–508, 2022.
Singh T, et al. "Rare coding variants in ten genes confer substantial risk for schizophrenia." Nature, 604(7906):509–516, 2022.
van Erp TGM, et al. "Cortical brain abnormalities in 4474 individuals with schizophrenia and 5098 control subjects via the ENIGMA Schizophrenia consortium." Biological Psychiatry, 84(9):644–654, 2018.
Brown AS. "The environment and susceptibility to schizophrenia." Progress in Neurobiology, 93(1):23–58, 2011.
Marconi A, et al. "Meta-analysis of the association between the level of cannabis use and risk of psychosis." Schizophrenia Bulletin, 42(5):1262–1269, 2016.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Schizophrenia.