A new study based on the latest gene-scanning technology has brought new and much-desired light on the cause of schizophrenia, a disease which manifests in patients through psychotic behavior, hallucinations and delusions currently and currently affects up to 1% of the world’s population.

Researchers involved in the new study published Friday in the journal Science illustrated that, through the latest technology, they discovered the fact that a rare change in one of several different genes may considerably increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.

Until now, most scientists believed the disease was caused by a series of relatively common genetic mutations, but none of those returned promising results.

The cause of the disease has remained vague until the recent development of high-resolution technology capable of scanning the complete DNA map. The scanning brought to light very rare genetic variations frequent amongst people suffering from schizophrenia.

"We're not saying that our results themselves are irrefutable proof that schizophrenia is all rare mutations. It is simply that in many schizophrenia cases, much of a patient's individual risk can be accounted for by a 'sledgehammer' mutation," said Jonathan Sebat, a geneticist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island and co-author of the study.

With the help of the new technology, the researchers identified more than 20 genes that may be the cause of schizophrenia. If they manage to link some of the genes, or all of them, to the illness, it would be the start of a new set of therapies against the terrible disease.

The discovery was the result of the collaboration between researchers at the National Institute of Health, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the University of Washington in Seattle.

During the research process, scientists collected and scanned blood samples from 150 schizophrenics as well as a group of 268 samples from people not suffering from schizophrenia.

They found 53 mutations in the DNA sequence and the fact that they occur three times more often in people with schizophrenia.

Researchers found out that some of the mutations were benign, while others have been implicated in sicknesses such as cancer and autism.

"What we prove is that, collectively, there is a threefold effect in schizophrenia and a fourfold effect in the childhood-onset disorder," said co-author Mary-Claire King, a geneticist at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine.

Researchers couldn’t establish yet whether the genetic mutations work alone to cause the disease or they work in combination with other processes.

However, those involved in the study expressed their optimist that with the constant development of gene-scanning technologies they will be able to solve the enigma of the terrible disease.