Schizophrenia has been found to be more than just one single disease. In fact, it’s a combination of eight genetically different disorders, which all have their own distinct symptoms.

Schizophrenia is a severe mental condition that affects approximately seven per thousand in the adult population, predominantly in the 15 to 35 year age group.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis analyzed more than 4,000 people with schizophrenia to identify specific genes for the condition.

One of the study’s senior investigators, C. Robert Cloninger, MD, PhD, and a team of researchers were able to identify distinct clusters of genes that are associated with eight distinct classes of schizophrenia.

“Genes don’t operate by themselves. They function in concert much like an orchestra, and to understand how they’re working, you have to know not just who the members of the orchestra are but how they interact. What we’ve done here, after a decade of frustration in the field of psychiatric genetics, is identify the way genes interact with each other, how the ‘orchestra’ is either harmonious and leads to health, or disorganized in ways that lead to distinct classes of schizophrenia,” said Cloninger in a statement.

The researchers matched exact DNA variations in schizophrenic patients, as well as in those without the disorder. How the genes interact with each other was identified. Although individual genes may have weak associations with schizophrenia, groups of interacting clusters of genes cause a dramatically high risk developing the condition, making it nearly impossible for those with a family history of the disease to avoid it.

The new findings are reported in The American Journal of Psychiatry.