Consuelo Walss-Bass writes book on family experiences with schizophrenia

When identical genetics and shared environments fail to predict disease outcomes, researchers look to the complex molecular mechanisms governing psychiatric disorders, as explored by biochemist and geneticist Consuelo Walss-Bass in her book "¿Por qué mi hermana?". For more than 20 years, Walss-Bass has focused on understanding psychiatric disorders at a molecular level, driven by a deeply personal question: Si heredamos los mismos genes y crecimos en el mismo ambiente, ¿por qué mi hermana tiene esquizofrenia y yo no? Published by Allele Books, the book narrates her family’s harrowing experience with the schizophrenia of her mother and sister while intertwining it with existing scientific knowledge about the disorder, which she discussed in a video call with BBC Mundo after conceiving the project during conversations with her father and siblings about their past living between Mexico and the United States.

Family Experiences with Schizophrenia Inform Walss-Bass Research

Walss-Bass serves as a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston, the health science center of the University of Texas, where she also directs the Psychiatric Genetics Program and a research laboratory housing 180 brains. Her work is informed by her family’s experiences with schizophrenia, which affected both her mother and her sister Paty, the fourth of five siblings who had a brief modeling career. Reflecting on her family’s history, Walss-Bass recounts how her father initially rejected the diagnosis for her sister, noting that the disease had already taken the love of his life and that the diagnosis felt like losing a loved one completely, specifically telling her: Estás equivocada. Tu hermana no tiene esquizofrenia. Yo lo sabría, viví con tu madre por años. When this exchange occurred, Walss-Bass had begun her doctorate and was studying the genetic causes of schizophrenia, making her sister’s condition evident to her, though she understood her father’s reaction because the mere idea of his daughter suffering from the illness was unbearable to him as he knew the diagnosis meant assuming she would never be the person she once was.

Walss-Bass Recalls Her Mother's Psychiatric Symptoms

Growing up, Walss-Bass and her siblings faced the challenges of their mother’s hallucinations, delusions, lack of expressiveness, and episodes of anger. Eight days before her 15th birthday, her mother was admitted to a neurological hospital as a last resort, an absence that deeply affected her and that she marked by leaving a little note in her suitcase hoping she would read it, experiencing sadness for her mother knowing she would suffer from not having them close during those roughly two months when nobody talked about it and everyone internalized it individually. Despite these hardships, she maintained fond memories of her mother from before her first severe episode, noting that her earliest memories before age five were beautiful because her mother was a very good mom before that event. Walss-Bass emphasizes that after initial episodes, patients may experience periods of lucidity before the illness returns with increasing frequency and permanence, making the recognition of early episodes and the pursuit of treatment essential.

Family Dynamics and Pandemic Changes

The family’s past in Mexico and the United States formed the backdrop for these experiences, involving siblings Eugenia, Rodolfo, Consuelo, Leo, and Danny, who is Jenny’s son.