The World Health Organization states that schizophrenia -- a mental illness characterized by degenerating thought processes and disintegrating emotional responsiveness -- affects about one out of every 143 adults globally.

That potentiality increases to about one in 90 for adults who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury ("TBI") and about one in 50 if that TBI is coupled with the person having a relative with schizophrenia.

Those numbers come from a recent study conducted at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, which appears in the August edition of the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin.

The research did not consist of any new patient trials or information, but, rather, examined and synthesized past research from nine earlier studies. Dr. Dolores Malaspina, a reviewer and commenter on the study, says that this necessarily renders the study only as good as the data that it worked with. Notwithstanding that caveat, Malaspina -- a New York University professor of psychiatry and medicine -- says that the studies perused by the Dublin researchers are "excellent."

One interest finding from the research stresses that the risk of schizophrenia does not seem to increase for patients with more severe brain injuries (e.g., a serious skull fracture versus a concussion deemed "mild"). Researchers say that other factors may be important, such as the location of the trauma.

Malaspina says that brain injury can disrupt and break apart neural connections, which can result in symptoms common with schizophrenia, such as depression and personality changes. She also notes that some people might have a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia.

"Exposure to a brain injury in those people can unmask a psychotic illness," she says.

Related Resource: MSNBC, "Head trauma may boost schizophrenia risk" Aug. 19, 2011