Dysbindin was discovered by the research group of Derek Blake via yeast two-hybrid screening for binding partners of α-dystrobrevin.

[5] Much interest in dysbindin has arisen through pedigree-based family-association studies of families with a history of schizophrenia, where a strong association was found between expression of a particular dysbindin allele and a clinical expression of schizophrenia.

This complexity is called disease allele heterogeneity and is a further reason that genetic associations are found with different markers in the dysbindin gene when different samples are studied.

Genetically caused dysbindin-related mechanisms causing brain dysfunction are not fully known, but in one study, schizophrenic patients carrying the high-risk haplotype demonstrated visual processing deficits.

[7] In another work, damping down the DTNBP1 expression led to an increase in cell surface dopamine D2-receptor levels.