From US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, July 2, 2009
A genetic test to predict schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is far off, say researchers who have just found that 30,000 gene variations are involved in the development of those psychiatric disorders, Reuters reports.
Intriguingly, the research, published in the journal Nature , suggests that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia have common genetic causes. “If some of the same genetic risks underlie schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, perhaps these disorders originate from some common vulnerability in brain development,” one expert from the National Institute of Mental Health said in a BBC News report.
The researchers also found that schizophrenia patients have genetic variations on a section of chromosome 6 that has genes associated with immunity, which suggests that immune function may play a role in schizophrenia. Earlier research suggests a link between schizophrenia and autism, U.S. News’s Nancy Shute reported.
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