Common Genetic Problem Linked With Five Major Mental Disorders

American researchers have identified a common problem in a number of faulty genes that are linked to five of the major psychiatric disorders.

In the widest trawl yet of genetic mutations linked with mental disorders, US-led researchers looked through the DNA code of 33,332 people with autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder or schizophrenia.

About Genetic Testing
Genetic testing helps to confirm a genetic condition in an individual and involves q complex laboratory techniques

Their genomes were matched against 27,888 "controls," or people who did not have these illnesses, in a bid to spot tiny changes in genes.

The five diseases have common risk factors in flaws on Chromosomes 2 and 10, and in two genes that help regulate the flow of calcium in brain cells, the investigators found.

One of the genes, called CACNA1C, has previously been fingered in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Epigenetics
In the recent years ‘epigenetics’ represents inheritable changes in gene expression that do not include DNA alterations.

The study, published in The Lancet, says the common genes are part of a much wider picture and do not by themselves explain the causes of these disorders or why their symptoms vary.

In addition, the gene samples examined by the Psychiatrics Genomics Consortium all came people from European ancestry, and the results may be different for people of different heritage, it said.

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But, it added, the findings are a useful step towards better diagnosis of these illnesses.

Psychiatric disorders are difficult to categorise because symptoms can be hazy or contradictory, and little is known about their underlying cause. Environmental factors also play a part.