From: deputydawg23x@gmail.com   
      
   Five major psychiatric disorders share genetic links   
   May 2013, Vol 44, No. 5   
      
      
   Five major mental illnesses -- autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity   
   disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia --   
   appear to share some common genetic risk factors.   
   Five major mental illnesses -- autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity   
   disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia --   
   appear to share some common genetic risk factors, according to an examination   
   of genetic data from more than    
   60,000 people worldwide (The Lancet, online Feb. 28).   
   Researchers in 19 countries examined the genomes of more than 33,000   
   individuals with one of the disorders and nearly 28,000 controls. They found   
   four regions of the genetic code where variation was linked to all five   
   disorders.   
   Of particular interest are disruptions in two specific genes. One, CACNA1C,   
   has previously been linked to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The other,   
   CACNB2, regulates the flow of calcium in brain cells and is crucial in helping   
   neurons communicate    
   with each other. The researchers posit that the disruption in calcium channel   
   function could be one early pathway that leaves someone vulnerable to   
   developing any of the five disorders, says Jordan Smoller, MD, the study's   
   lead author.   
   "While these variations are only a small part of the genetic component of   
   these disorders, these findings still point to a shared biology," says   
   Smoller, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts   
   General Hospital.   
   The hope is that these findings will eventually make it easier to diagnose and   
   treat these disorders, says Bruce Cuthbert, PhD, director of the National   
   Institute of Mental Health's Division of Adult Translational Research and   
   Treatment Development.   
   "We are finally starting to make inroads where we have actual physiological   
   mechanisms that we can target," Cuthbert says. "We can really start to   
   understand the biology instead of having to guess at it."   
   --Amy Novotney   
      
      
      
   http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/05/disorders.aspx   
      
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