Weaving Causal Explanations of Schizophrenia in Urban Areas: The Role of Gene-Environment Selection

Jongsma and Jones presents an editorial on the role of gene-environment selection in associating the prevalence of schizophrenia in urban areas. Explanations of this urbanicity association, entwined with links between the disorder and socioeconomic deprivation, which have led people to question the possibilities of a reverse causal association and ask whether people with early illness or strong liability drift into cities and down the social scale or whether those environments exert a toxic effect. Few studies dissect city life from a socioenvironmental context but urbanicity certainly is associated with cognition and the brain.