Despite developments in neuroscience that provide “a way to study schizophrenia in vivo … efforts to understand the neurobiological bases of the clinical symptoms that the diagnosis is based on have been largely unsuccessful.” Small samples, questionable reliability and validity of measurements, medication confounds, failure to distinguish state and trait effects, correlation-causation ambiguity, and the absence of compelling animal models are among the obstacles to finding “the elusive correlation” between neurobiology and symptoms, according to this article in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Mathalon, D; Ford, J; “Neurobiology of Schizophrenia: Search for the Elusive Correlation with Symptoms.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012; 6:136. online May 25, 2012