Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Share Genetic Roots

[JBeukema]

A trio of genome-wide studies – collectively the largest to date – has pinpointed a vast array of genetic variation that cumulatively may account for at least one third of the genetic risk for schizophrenia. One of the studies traced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in part, to the same chromosomal neighborhoods.
"These new results recommend a fresh look at our diagnostic categories," said Thomas R. Insel, M.D., director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. "If some of the same genetic risks underlie schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, perhaps these disorders originate from some common vulnerability in brain development."

NIMH · Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Share Genetic Roots

Hopefully,. this will lead to more effective prevention and treatment of such problems.

 

[Luissa]

not surprising, both become manic. In alzheimer's patient people who are bi polar seemed to have delusions quite a bit more.

 

[geauxtohell]

This can't be true. The Church of $cientology told me (for a nominal fee) that all psychiatric conditions were rooted in phetons, not genetics!

 

[waltky]

Using avatars to fight schizophrenia voices...

Avatars ease voices for schizophrenia patients
29 May 2013 > Use of an avatar can help treat patients with schizophrenia who hear voices, a UK study suggests.

The trial, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, focused on patients who had not responded to medication. Using customised computer software, the patients created avatars to match the voices they had been hearing. After up to six therapy sessions most patients said their voice had improved. Three said it had stopped entirely.

Avatars created by patients

The study was led by psychiatrist emeritus professor Julian Leff, who spoke to patients through their on-screen avatars in therapy sessions. Gradually he coached patients to stand up to their voices. "I encourage the patient saying, 'you mustn't put up with this, you must tell the avatar that what he or she is saying is nonsense, you don't believe these things, he or she must go away, leave you alone, you don't need this kind of torment'," said Prof Leff. "The avatar gradually changes to saying, 'all right I'll leave you alone, I can see I've made your life a misery, how can I help you?' And then begins to encourage them to do things that would actually improve their life."

By the end of their treatment, patients reported that they heard the voices less often and that they were less distressed by them. Levels of depression and suicidal thoughts also decreased, a particularly relevant outcome-measure in a patient group where one in 10 will attempt suicide.

Treatment as usual

 

[ScienceRocks]

Everything is controlled at its "baseline" by genetics. Someone that is heavy maybe that way partly because of their genetics...

Not saying some of that couldn't be eating to much either.

 

[waltky]

Closer to a cure for schizophrenia...

Scientists open the 'black box' of schizophrenia with genetic finding
January 28 2016 - For the first time, scientists have pinned down a molecular process in the brain that helps to trigger schizophrenia. The researchers involved in the landmark study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature, say the discovery of this new genetic pathway likely reveals what goes wrong neurologically in a young person diagnosed with the devastating disorder.

The study marks a watershed moment, with the potential for early detection and new treatments that were unthinkable just a year ago, according to Steven Hyman, director of the Stanley Centre for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hyman, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, calls it "the most significant mechanistic study about schizophrenia ever." "I'm a crusty, old, curmudgeonly skeptics," he said. "But I'm almost giddy about these findings."

The researchers, chiefly from the Broad Institute, Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston, found that a person's risk of schizophrenia is dramatically increased if they inherit variants of a gene important to "synaptic pruning" - the healthy reduction during adolescence of brain cell connections that are no longer needed. In patients with schizophrenia, a variation in a single position in the DNA sequence marks synapses for removal and that pruning goes out of control. The result is an abnormal loss of gray matter.

Scientists have found that a person's risk of schizophrenia increases if they inherit variants of a gene important to "synaptic pruning" - the healthy reduction during adolescence of brain cell connections that are no longer needed.​

The genes involved coat the neurons with "eat-me signals," said study co-author Beth Stevens, a neuroscientist at Children's Hospital and Broad. "They are tagging too many synapses. And they're gobbled up." The founding director of the Broad Institute, Eric Lander, believes the research represents an astonishing breakthrough. "It's taking what has been a black box...and letting us peek inside for the first time. And that is amazingly consequential," he said.

The timeline for this discovery has been relatively fast. In July 2014, Broad researchers published the results of the largest genomic study on the disorder and found more than 100 genetic locations linked to schizophrenia. Based on that research, Harvard geneticist Steven McCarroll analysed data from some 29,000 schizophrenia cases, 36,000 controls and 700 post mortem brains. The information was drawn from dozens of studies performed in 22 countries, all of which contribute to the worldwide database called the Psychiatric Genome Consortium.

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