[Lutger]

You'll be positively surprised to read the conclusion of the article then:

"The findings also offer a glimmer of hope that researchers can correct course and use these new insights to design much-improved treatments for schizophrenia. Treatments that can't come soon enough."

Close enough, right?

Journalists know how to write headlines that make people read the article, or at least some people. They are little dramas, and if you start by giving the plot away like that, as if you just simplified a scientific paper a bit, your analytics will tell you to look for a different job soon. It is what it is. So no, it couldn't 'just as easily' be this alternative thing if it wants to get attention.

And I don't think this is always a bad thing. It only gets bad if the headline is overly editorializing, clickbait or just plain false. I don't think it is in this case.