ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on part of a three year research project funded by the Wellcome Trust. The project focused on two common multifactorial diseases thought to have a genetic component: schizophrenia and heart disease. The chapter discusses some of the findings in relation to schizophrenia. This research involved 39 semi-structured interviews with members of six separate 'interested' groups. These comprised six clinicians involved in genetic research, six psychiatrists, four community psychiatric nurses, five general practitioners (GPs), seven people diagnosed as having schizophrenia and 10 carers. GPs handle a much more diverse patient group, and have proportionately much less experience of schizophrenia. Some had deep reservations about the general suggestion of predictive medicine. The group diagnosed with schizophrenia seems more inclined to see advantage in a genetically based diagnosis or prediction than the non-geneticist professionals. They convey a strong sense of struggling to make sense of lives that incorporate experiences far out of the ordinary.
