Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, has been recognized as an illness for decades. At one time many people believed that the cause of th illness was primarily due to bad parenting. But since the Human Genome Project began, a number of amazing breakthroughs and insights have come to light. Foremost among these insights is that our genetics play a considerably larger role in many of our diseases than previously believed. The inescapable conclusion is that heredity, while always considered a factor in diseases, seems to be much more of a factor than commonly assumed.
The hope now is that researchers can use the recently identified bipolar genes to help in determing exactly how these genes work to determine who gets the disease and who does not.
The study occurred in England at Cardiff University and was headed by Nick Craddock. It involved poring over the genomes of nearly 11,000 people of whom approximately 40% had been diagnosed with the bipolar disorder. The hope was that by comparing the genomes of those without the disorder to those with the disorder, the specific genomes for the disease could be isolated and studied.
Fortunately, the study ended up producing far more information than they had originally hoped for. The study discovered 2 genes in the brain that held the key to the illness – the ANK3 gene and the CACNA1C gene.
Manic depression has a long history of running in families. Past studies linking heredity to the disease have noted that if a child has one or more parent with bipolar disorder, she is significantly more likely to have the disease than is the child of someone whose parents do not have manic depression.
Because of this seemingly strong genetic factor, scientific researchers have been looking for the gene connection for a long time. Until the Human Genome Project, the main way that researchers went about attempting to discover the biological importance was to look at identical twins and adopted children. Studies of identical twins have consistently shown that if one twin has bipolar disorder, there is a much greater than 50% chance that the other has it as well.
Studies have also shown that in the cases where bipolar parents have adopted a child, that child does not show any increased probability of having the disease than does the general population. So, scientist have long suspected the role of genetics in the development of bipolar disease. But, the recent study at Cardiff University strongly confirms the theory.
Julie Frey writes about bipolar disorder and how it affects lives. For more info on bipolar 1 disorder, bipolar support groups, and other bipolar issues, please visit her website.
