Although schizophrenia is at least partly inherited, it's not as simple as spotting a single gene. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation, where methyl groups are "stuck" onto the DNA, can change how genes work in health and disease without actually changing their genetic sequences. Researchers from Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden have found changes in methylation patterns in schizophrenia that may be useful as biomarkers in schizophrenia, predicting severity or responses to treatment. For example, patients with early onset schizophrenia, which is linked with more severe disease, had lower levels of methylation, and patients treated with haloperidol had higher levels of methylation, which was closer to that seen in people without schizophrenia. Abstract