Irish researchers have made a major breakthrough in efforts to find new treatments for schizophrenia.

A team from Trinity College and the Royal College of Surgeons have found that abnormalities in blood vessels in the brain may play an important role in the development of the disease.

The researchers think using drugs to treat the malfunctioning blood vessels could help improve treatments.

The debilitating condition affects around 1% of people in Ireland.

The research is published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.