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Contra Skolnick On Schizophrenia Microbes

Astral Codex Ten Podcast

Release Date: 07/07/2025

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Astral Codex Ten Podcast

We’re running another ACX Grants round! If you already know what this is and just want to apply for a grant, use (should take 15 - 30 minutes), deadline August 15. If you already know what this is and want to help as a , , , , or , click the link for the relevant form, same deadline. Otherwise see below for more information. What is ACX Grants? ACX Grants is a microgrants program that helps fund ACX readers’ charitable or scientific projects. Click the links to see the and cohorts. The program is conducted in partnership with , a charity spinoff of Manifold Markets, who handle the...

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Stephen Skolnick is a gut microbiome expert blogging at Eat Shit And Prosper. His most recent post argues that contra the psychiatric consensus, schizophrenia isn’t genetic at all - it’s caused by a gut microbe. He argues:

  1. Scientists think schizophrenia is genetic because it obviously runs in families
  2. But the twin concordance rates are pretty low - if your identical twin has schizophrenia, there’s only about a 30%-40% chance that you get it too. Is that really what we would expect from a genetic disease?
  3. Also, scientists have looked for schizophrenia genes, and can only find about 1-2% as many as they were expecting.
  4. So maybe we should ask how a disease can run in families without being genetic. Gut microbiota provide an answer: most people “catch” their gut microbiome from their parents.
  5. Studies find that schizophrenics have very high levels of a gut bacterium called Ruminococcus gnavus.
  6. This bacterium secretes psychoactive chemicals. Constant exposure to these chemicals might be the cause of schizophrenia.

I disagree with all of this. Going in order:

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/contra-skolnick-on-schizophrenia