New research has linked the genetic risk for schizophrenia to retinal thinning, suggesting early indicators of the disorder may be found in retinal morphology.
The Swiss-led study1 examined whether changes in our nerve connections are linked to a genetic risk for schizophrenia, as impaired neural information processing is one of the main characteristics of the disorder.
Previous studies suggest that schizophrenia not only reduces volume of grey matter in the brains of those affected, but that it also leads to loss of retinal tissue. However, whether these changes are the cause of schizophrenia or a consequence of the disorder has remained unanswered.
The study showed that higher genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia is indeed associated with thinner retinas
Retinal health could also be affected by schizophrenia itself, for example through antipsychotic medication, lifestyle factors or diabetes.
Data from Healthy Individuals
“To investigate whether the risk of developing schizophrenia has an effect on the central nervous system, we examined tens of thousands of healthy individuals,” said Dr Finn Rabe, first author of the study and postdoc at the University of Zurich. “We then calculated polygenic risk scores for each individual.”2
The researchers were able to use extensive genetic and retinal data taken from the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database containing data from over half a million people.
Thin Retina, Elevated Risk
The study showed that higher genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia is indeed associated with thinner retinas. However, the effects are small and can only be reliably demonstrated in large-scale studies.
The researchers said unlike changes in the brain, changes in the retina are easy to detect using non-invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Dr Rabe said while the study showed the potential of using OCT in clinical practice, large-scale longitudinal studies are needed to examine how useful it will be for prevention.
References
- Rabe F, Smigielski L, Homan P, et al. Genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia through neuroinflammatory pathways associated with retinal thinness. Nat. Mental Health. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s44220-025-00414-6.
- Universität Zürich, Retinal Clues to Mental Health, (media release, 22 April 2025) available at: news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2025/Retinal-Clues.html [accessed May 2025]
