Common psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression share genetic risk factors related to immune function and DNA regulation, according to new findings by a large collaborative research project from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium involving UCLA, King's College London, Cardiff University, Harvard and MIT.
The study was published online by the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Thousands of genetic differences in the human genome act together to increase the risk for psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. However, until now, it has not been clear how these genetic changes affect biological processes that then go on to alter brain function.
In the study the group analyzed genetic data from more than 60,000 participants, including individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, autism spectrum disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as healthy individuals. The aim was to identify which biological and biochemical pathways caused risk for these disorders.
[For more of this story, written by Mark Wheeler, go to http://medicalxpress.com/news/...ipolar-disorder.html]
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