In this study, we directly examined whether congenital blindness protects against a schizophrenia-related phenotype in the methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) rodent model.
You could argue that rodent models are insufficient to model schizophrenia in humans since it does not appear to follow reality
The relationship between schizophrenia and congenital blindness is still unrecognized and controversial. Several studies are done in this neurodevelopmental field but so far there has been no assertion nor confirmation of the suggested hypothesis. More research is needed.
Which is a more concrete version of the conclusion from the study linked from rain_enjoyer.
While support of this hypothesis would have led to novel avenues of research and potential novel therapies, the results of current study suggest that blindness does not protect against schizophrenia.
So a conclusion of “we still dont know” is quite different.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0920996423002256
You could argue that rodent models are insufficient to model schizophrenia in humans since it does not appear to follow reality
From the linked paper (bolding mine):
Conclusions
The relationship between schizophrenia and congenital blindness is still unrecognized and controversial. Several studies are done in this neurodevelopmental field but so far there has been no assertion nor confirmation of the suggested hypothesis. More research is needed.
Which is a more concrete version of the conclusion from the study linked from rain_enjoyer.
Correlation is not causation.
Its actually a bit different conclusion.
The conclusion of the rain_enjoyer paper is:
So a conclusion of “we still dont know” is quite different.
there’s also observational study on half million people that, turns out, is statistically underpowered just because congenital blindness is so rare https://jmsgr.tamhsc.edu/the-lack-of-comorbidity-between-early-cortical-blindness-and-schizophrenia/ also https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article-abstract/46/6/1335/5813926
This statement read to me as suggests in that more research is needed. It suggests this thing, but to definitively state we need to do more