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Subscribe to RSSThe biggest study yet into genetics and mental health has come up with a stunning result: The five most common mental illnesses -- autism, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disease, schizophrenia and major depression -- all have a common genetic root.
The finding, published in the journal Lancet on Wednesday, may eventually lead to a complete rewrite of the medical understanding of the causes of mental illness.
“We have been able to discover specific genetic variants that seem to overlap among disorders that we think of as very clinically different,” Dr. Jordan Smoller of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
The study does not explain every case of psychiatric disease, the researchers stress.
“We think this is one tiny fraction of the genetic component of these disorders. They involve hundreds and possibly thousands of genes,” Smoller said.
And it didn’t show every case was related. But it demonstrated on a genetic level that the five diseases are more like a continuum of dysfunction than five separate and discrete conditions.
Smoller’s international team included dozens of researchers who looked at the genetics of more than 33,000 psychiatric patients and compared them to nearly 28,000 people without mental illness. They did what is called a genome-wide association study -- a scan of all the DNA.
“We aimed to identify specific variants underlying genetic effects shared between the five disorders in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia,” they wrote in their report.
They linked a considerable number to four places in the genome: a big stretch of chromosome 3; another part of chromsome 10, and two very specific genetic areas known to be involved in controlling cell function called calcium channels.
It wasn’t a complete surprise, Smoller says. Doctors have noted some overlap of symptoms and knew that in families prone to one psychiatric disease, another could also occur. “Autism was once known as childhood schizophrenia and the two disorders were not clearly differentiated until the 1970s,” the team wrote.
This finding could suggest that a genetic weakness upstream in the development of the brain could lead to a variety of psychiatric symptoms, perhaps influenced by other genes, or by the environment as well.
“We didn’t know going in that we would be able to find commonality with such a broad array of disorders,” Smoller said. “The fact that a particular pathway emerged as being relevant was also surprising. We didn’t know about that one before.”
Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, hopes the findings may help dispel some of the stigma that still surrounds psychiatric diseases.
“Ultimately this kind of research will give us a return in terms of social attitudes toward brain-based illness,” Duckworth said in a telephone interview. “If you can understand an illness process, it doesn’t seem so mysterious and terrifying.”
Duckworth said every psychiatrist knows of patients whose symptoms don’t clearly meet the definition of any one disease, and he noted that Sigmund Freud defined schizophrenia as a group of diseases. “This is a corner piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” he said.
And it might lead to better treatments, said Dr. Bruce Cuthbert, who is director of the National Institute of Mental Health’s division of Adult Translational Research. “We are finally starting to make inroads where we have actual physiological mechanisms that we can target,” he said. “We can really start to understand the biology instead of having to guess at it.”
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Because our medical "system" is profit-oriented, I fear that more studies like this will lead to insurance companies denying coverage based on a patient's DNA or family physical/mental problems.
We need a proper national health plan NOW.
What I see coming from this are the possible abuses such as genetic profiling in the hands of those who have no business knowing your DNA sequencing......... Insurance companies, employers and government come to mind.
Hummmmmmmmm As distasteful as we may find it ... human genetic engineering is coming ... the human specie has out grown its need for increasing its population size ... it has passed the point of diminishing returns ... we need less bodies on the planet ... and healthier minds and bodies ... we must become efficient to survive .... Better to limit breeding and stop the wars ... than the alternate catastrophe ...
"...I fear that more studies like this will lead to insurance companies denying coverage based on a patient's DNA or family physical/mental problems."
What do you think will happen when the govt. is in control? The problem with relying upon rich people's money is, once their money has been depleted, you have nothing but poor people left.
So...the government will save us? I guess there could be a first time.
Anyone who shows up at the emergency room now gets whatever they need, so just how would the insidious insurance companies deny anyone coverage? Coverage is no longer needed in the welfare state. Until we run out of other people's money.
Insurance companies are issues for people who work, Homesick, doesn't concern you.
Moombeamracer, I'd like to know who is going to be making the determination of who is acceptable to reproduce and who isn't. And what their criteria might be in making such decisions......... So much for all men and women being born equal. Welcome Brave New World, we're almost there.
There goes our last female......(Ice Age).
Seriously, we are mostly not a kind and supportive specie. We are competitive, aggressive, undermining to some sick dynamism. So of course we will use this genetic info against one another, eventually. We already are, just not based on scientific evidence, more on financial evidence. Rich is good, poor is bad. In general rich attracts beauty and vice versa. Rich attract smart, rich attracts power etc,... So, the selection is on.
Anyhow, turn on the oven Henrich.....
Applied eugenics would have screened out people like Stephen Hawking and Oscar Wilde.
The Law of Unintended Consequences should always be paramount in any consideration of deliberate genetic manipulations.
I don't believe we are anywhere near to being morally or intellectually ready to start deciding what is a good or bad human genome sequence in the long run. Look at how poorly we have managed plant manipulation and the perverse results of monocrops and cross species gene jumping.
I'm all for the research but could not be more paranoid of the monied interests having any say in the matter whatsoever.
moonbeamracer, YOU are the alternate catastrophe.
Once the human genome is entirely mapped and understood. It seems likely we'll find that everybody has certain undesirable genetic predispositions.
And this is news? Been going on for eternity. Called inbreeding. In the USA there are a whole geographic region that it is prevalent. Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia's. Some of them spread to Michigan. Mental and physical abnormalities. Also those tight knit groups of villages and towns have same problem, its not the water folks. Grandmas been saying it for years, not every one listened.
homesick yank -- while I completely agree with you that we need a national health care system, you have the wrong idea about how science works.
Most of the biomedical research studies you read about are funded by NIH grants. Grant applications are reviewed by teams of top experts in the field who have no financial conflicts of interest. The system is not 100% free of the influence of money (what in our society is?) but it's a lot closer to being free of financial biases than any other system.
I'm sorry but I bristle every time someone makes the assumption that Big Pharma or Health Insurance companies are influencing every biomedical research study they read about. It's not true. I earned my PhD 10 years ago and my salary has yet to hit $60,000. After 9 years in college my first starting salary (in 2002) was $28,000 a year as a postdoctoral fellow. Every time I read a post like yours I find myself wondering, "where is this gargantuan pile of Big Pharma money and insurance company money that everyone thinks we scientists are enjoying? And how did I -- and almost every scientist I know - miss out on it?
Most of us don't get into science expecting to make a lot of money. We do it because we are deeply curious about the natural world and because we hope to bring useful knowledge to humanity.
By the way, Autism and ADHD are not mental illnesses. They are neurodevelopmental disorders. That difference is important.
Maybe we will be able to "splice-out" mental illness genes in the future.
That would be great.
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Maybe we will be able to "splice-out" mental illness genes in the future.
That would be great.
.
Maybe we will be able to "splice-out" mental illness genes in the future.
That would be great.
WTF Newsvine.... What is this Bubblegum error and now 3 copies of my post?
.
.
Everyone seems to assume this will lead to medically-mandated termination of pregnancies. Yet, everyone forget the possibility of a discovery like this leading to new gene therapy treatments.
Basically, instead of doctors saying, "Your child has the Autism gene, so we will have to terminate," it will be "You child has the Autism gene, but if we give him this treatment over he next 12 months, we can cure him, and he will grow up normal."
I can be a pessimist as much as anyone else, but I fail to see why so many people assume by default that every genetic discovery will lead to "Brave New World"-style sterilization and eugenics programs.
Steve, there was no need for the work comment. Could you state your opinion without being rude and saying things about which you have no clue?
When technology advances to the point that we know everything about everyone, we'll finally have tamed the human species. Won't that be great?
It is important to understand the origins of mental disorders only if our goal is to find ways to treat the disorders IF they prove to be a problem for the person with them. I emphasize IF because there are millions, possibly hundreds of millions of people with some form of mental disorder who lead normal lives.
Having views or ideas that are influenced by an abnormal mentality can be a positive thing and may be tied to many of our most important discoveries. Consider the minds of Einstein and Tesla, these people almost certainly had some form of mental disorder but their discoveries could not be more important.
I hope we don't use genetic profiling as a way to filter the population...too many great minds have already been thrown away, we need the innovation that comes from the unique perspective of minds that don't work the way we expect them to.
Genetic filtering would not only tame the human race, it would doom us by ensuring that no one was anything but average. A near hive mentality unable to think outside the box, lemmingsville!
@Junicon - It's posts like yours that I really enjoy reading. I have the highest admiration for anyone who is able to stay the course and earn their doctorate. People who have never attended college have no appreciation for the work involved to go that far with their education.
Thank you for making the distinction between Autism and mental illnesses. My 15 year old son has a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome (which I guess is now going to be strictly referred to as Autism) and pediatric bi-polar disorder. He refuses medication, and let me tell you, trying to raise a teenage coupled with these challenges is incredibly difficult.
Because people are throwing out the word "eugenics" without understanding what it means, I wish to point out that its original meaning was "good birth" or "good origin," and that it was this original meaning that made Charles Darwin enthusiastically endorse the work of his half-cousin, Sir Francis Galton, who coined the term to replace that of John Humphrey Noyes' Stirpiculture (breeding for religious and virtuous qualities).
Pre-natal care is a present practice of "eugenics," and so is any form of birth control. Unfortunately, practices in the 20th Century associated it with forced sterilization.
Muse, the etymology of a word generally has little to do with its current meaning. The word "computer" literally means "together-thinker" (one who adds things in their head), and was originally used for human assistants who would do your nuts-and-bolts work for you, especially calculations, while you did more important work or went out to lunch. But I doubt you'd get much appreciation today if you called your secretary a computer.
"Steve, there was no need for the work comment. Could you state your opinion without being rude and saying things about which you have no clue?"
Ram...people who do not work just use the emergency room as their health plan, so yes there was a need for that comment. Who do you think pays for it? "the government?" They get their money from the people who work for a living. And good luck finding a topic about which I have no clue. At least I made a comment on the topic. Do you have an opinion on the actual topic?
homesick you have good reason to question how these studies will be misused because science has misused their discoveries too many times to think the govt and business who are in bed with each will be ethical in using this type of information. Only very naive people would not recognize the danger.
Did you know that scientists have developed a way to control behaviours with robotics in rats? They can direct through the rat's brain which way to go what to do by using pleasure responses in the brain. I just bet the military would love to get a hold on this technology once perfected.
Intresting. I'm ADHD and Bipolar and my oldest daughter is highly autistic. I'm also GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) which breaks the mold for mental illness since it dominant. I got it from my birth mom and both my birth brothers have it to some extent.
It used to cost many tens of thousands of dollars to get your genetic profile for a very limited set of genes --- for example, $70,000 to test for five genes specific to breast cancer. And the testing would take 3-4 weeks and involve around 20 technicians and medical personnel. Now the latest technology can profile your entire genome in about 2 hours, involved only two personnel and the device costs arount $1,000.
This is a sure recipe for abuse by insurance companies, employers, and even things you don't think of such as big-dollar college and professional sports. And, unfortunately we have one political party that is in the pocket of the insurance companies and employers, and even big time sports and they control the House and can filibuster anything they don't like in the Senate. So, for the foreseeable future the insurance companies and employers are going to win.
But we are dangerously close to a society in which a child's DNA is sequenced and that record follows him for the rest of his life, determining who can join the military, who can have good jobs, who can get into college, and even who can vote.
Nature or nuture?
as a family practice physician I have many patients who have parents, sibling, children with psychiatric diagnoses, is it their environment or are they genetically pre-dispositioned?
Also, for those so inclined, Dr Scott Russo of Mt Sinai in NYC, has studied a protein called Rac1 which may be a biochemical source of depression. Hopefully this type of research will open additional treatment options
VADOC,Great post.I'm hoping not only for better treatments but also cures for mental health conditions.
I can only speak for myself but, my own case is both. I'm genetically predisposed to anxiety and depression, but it was environment that triggered them.
I think the answer is nature. My mother and her twin sister both had schizophrenia. I have always suspected that it is triggered during development.
In a nature vs nurture discussion, it's always debated as an either/or. But I think it's a little of both.
Every member of my family - every member - is an alcoholic. Both grandparents, my father, brother, aunt, and two cousins have died of either cirrosis of the liver or "alcohol related heart failure." So obviously there is a genetic connection, a predisposition.
But I'm a teetotaler. I made a decision decades ago not to drink at all. So we can and do choose.
Nature verses nurture.
The above statement is absolutely true, but only if the term “genetic” is referring to the nurtured environmental information that is stored in the genes (DNA) of their respective chromosomes …. and not to any nature inherited information that is stored in said genes (DNA).
The chromosomes within the cells of all life forms are in fact, information storage devices (memories) and the DNA within each chromosome is the encoded information stored therein.
Therefore, each and every chromosome is akin to a PC’s “flash drive” memory device. Both come with pre-loaded or “inherited” information and both are capable of storing additional environmentally nurtured (sensed) information.
Thus said, the above stated .... “five (5) most common mental illnesses all have a common genetic root” ..... simply because they are all the result of the individual’s environmental nurturing.
Prescription medications are incapable of “curing” said mental illnesses simply because they are, per say, “written in the DNA”.
“You are what your environment nurtures you to be”.
JUSTKAY, I agree, I think it's a bit of both.
msannomalley, that is the way it works. You are genetically predisposed to a mental illness and then an environmental trigger awakens it. For illnesses like schizophrenia the onset is usually between 20 and 30ish and is most prevalent in men.
Just because someone is genetically pre-disposed to an issue doesn't mean they WILL manifest the desease. I know family members who are pre-disposed to diabetes, only the females develop the issue (in my wife's family). I am sure there are many people who are pre-disposed to various mental issues, but without a trigger, most won't develop anything.
In my opinion, our society is structured so that those who are willing to do anything without regard for anyone around them, succeed. Many, if they see a threat to their status, will manipulate perception of those they want to influence against others. People on the receiving end of this type of behavior might develop anxiety, depression, or psychosis in more extreme examples (I've felt myself getting close to many of those, and if I didn't have a strong character, I might have given in to some pretty nasty thoughts). I could well imagine what someone with a genetic trait might have done in many situations we have today.
Look at Mr Holmes in Aurora Colorado, or Adam Lanza, both experienced triggers, people saw they were acting oddly, but no one realized they were psychotic until too late. Neither had comprehensive evaluations because they hadn't committed any violent acts that would have concerned others.
I'm definitely genetically predisposed to depression and schizophrenia and environment triggered depression, for sure. Changing my environment was what actually made it manageable, more than anything else. I have to work hard to keep off medication - sleep right, eat right, exercise, and not put myself into situations that would seriously be doomed for failure.
sounds like one of the Neanderthals got a chimpanzee pregnant.
@SamC,
Just because a disease or dysfunction is "written in the DNA" does not mean it is incurable. There are numerous ways of introducing new genetic material into the mix to treat/cure such things. For example, harmless viruses, such as CMV can be modified to change the genetic material in hosts (since viruses normally work by injecting their own genetic material into host cells.) This one is already starting to find a small, but increasing, number of applications. There are drugs that can "turn on" or "turn off" genetic switches that trigger the genes to act differently. This is the opposite of random drugs in our environment from plastics and water pollution and such that trigger these switches randomly, causing things like birth defects and cancer. If pollution can do it by accident, science will eventually be able to do it by design.
As someone who has three of out the five (autism, attention deficit disorder,major depression) I do know other people in my family who have mental illnesses for example my mom, sister, my older brother etc. I'm very grateful that people are looking into what causes mental illnesses.
@Hillary. I also have an autism spectrum (aspergers) disporder and depression.
Depression runs in my family but I am the only person with an autism disorder.
Stay on the meds, get off the computer, stay away from guns and everything will be fine!
Very classy Dominiator.
Hillary / epsitemologist - I am fortunate not to personally suffer from any of these issues - I was a little hyperactive as a kid, but that is a far cry from a real problem. Please ignore people like Dominiator - yes, there are times to joke Dom, but there are times it is inappropriate too. Best wishes I have had friends with severe depression and it isn't a joke. I wish you well.
FU Dominator, stop eating, talking, typing and breathing and the rest of us will be fine!
@Dominator
I would take my medications, if I could afford them but even on SSI Disability I still have to beg and borrow money to pay for the treatment and medication that I need because of GOP cuts to the social safety net.
My life is hard enough before and now it is even harder.
Hillary and epistemologist, there will always be people on here who don't get autism, ADD, or mental illness; and many of them don't want to get it. Don't worry about those people. You know the truth about your conditions as well as we can know, along with many others who have family and friends in similar circumstances. Best wishes from me as well-and here's hoping for better and better treatment for all of these things!
im my experience, crazy people wind up with other crazy people because few normal people will put up with them, then they breed children with genetic flaws coupled with the disadvantage of growing up in a crazy environment. screwed before birth
In my experience, crazy people prefer to be independent instead of being around crazy people or normal people--both of whom make them crazy!`
Good one Mady.
Call me crazy one more time ......
I mean, we can't complain. Things are getting better over time. During the Dark Ages in Europe, "crazies" were called Heretics and were burning in public, a la Taliban.
Some of the most creative people are just a little bit crazy (or more).
And we all know that poem that Steve Jobs was fond of, "Here's to the Crazy Ones".
Superdave
It's funny you say this. I was thinking recently about how inadvertantly my circle of friends has incorporated persons with the same illness I have. It's not by choice, but more it just happened. I've wondered if it was a like attracts like situation or just by chance due to volume of persons out there with my illness.
Gary,
Einstein was a functioning Autistic. He couldn't finction in social invironments and preferred to isolate himself from others because they made him too anxious.
Howard Hughes spent nearly half his adult life isolated and it was determined that he had completely stopped taking care of himself. Eccentric was the term at the time.
"Crazy" isn't exactly a sensitive word....
In MY experience, so-called "crazy" people are often at least working on their issues and getting better, unlike certain others who think they are normal but are just sitting around remaining dysfunctional.
Great, now just do a DNA test in Connecticut before you sell a gun!
The writers who come up with these twisted movies, books and other medium of gore, torture, violence, and sexual deviance, will they be considered touched in the head or will it just be the people who want to imitate art? MORONIC or facts?
I used to have multiple personality disorder. But now we're okay!
I don't know if you meant it the way it sounded but that was funny as hell.
Absolutely love it!
Ah ah, you're the better one of them all.
Thanks for the chuckle.
Would be funnier if I hadn't heard it a dozen times already and it was actually relevant rather than a random psychiatric joke.
Gary: If you post a joke or tell someone a joke, do you check with everyone to make sure someone hasn't heard it before? Judging by the responses, I'd say there were at least a few who had not heard it before. The chance to get someone to chuckle or bring a smile to their face overrides whether or not you might have heard it before. Sorry, objection overruled.
Good One CNR!
Thanks roc, we appreciate that ;-)~
Anytime
Say Hi to everyone.
Hmmm. I believe when they don't know the answer. It is always blame the DNA and say it was caused by their genes. Wow!!! when you look for something and you can not find the answer. You make up an answer!!! Again Psychiatry has failed for years and is even doing worse then ever before. The TREATMENT is more dangerous than the illness. Maybe it's the food, or the lack of, that cause the genes to mutate that is why we see a lot of the psychiatric behavior later in life.
You're crazy.
Enoch, you touched on something that lawyers might use as a defense for clients: Not guilty by virtue of genetic disposition for insanity.
where did you get that idea????
If I was told that my unborn child's DNA showed there was a mental or physical problem and that there was a procedure available to fix the problem . . . I would have no problem with having the problem fixed. We are doing some of that now. Don't be so afraid of everything thing just to make sure something doesn't slip past you. We are all a little nuts and the environment does cause some harm. By the time all of the new medical "science" gets into practice, we will be unphased by each introduction because it happens in very small increments . . . until we look back and say, wow!!! medicine sure has come a long way. Think about stem cell therapy . . . it didn't explode into use because of the politics involved and everyone seemed to be accepting of this new "science".
Enoch, I agree with your comment ...... except for the "gene mutation" part.
The genes, or actually the DNA within the gene, has not mutated ...... but has actually been "written" with or "uploaded" with environmentally sensed information that is responsible for said "mental illness".
Either part or all of the environmentally sensed information that a person is subjected to is stored in the DNA of their brain's neurons. Thus, all conscious "memories" that one is capable of "recalling", are recalled from said "neuron DNA storage".
There's a lot of misinformation going around on these boards/the web. I wish people wouldn't write like they have been educated about a subject unless they have. People are easily confused and misinformed.
MGates73,
Do you mean educated in/on those things that the "educated" people are just now claiming to be a "miseducation" in/of Neuroscience ........ or do you mean educated in/on those thing that the "educated" people are just now finding out and/or realizing the truth and fact about?
If one was educated to believe what those "educated" people believed, then one would still be "dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks" relative to how the human mind is nurtured and functions, RIGHT?
And they will now hafta re-educate themselves to again rejoin the "ranks-of-the-approved-educated", .... right.
MGates73, if you had been reading my "postings" to different Forums over the past 8 to 10 years .... you would now know where I am "coming from". REF: "THIS SEEDED COMMENTARY" that was seeded Nov 2010.
Cheers
beware, data judgement is here. like a credit report, one will soon be judged in personality profiling. i call it a; mental tattoo, something that haunts you, your entire life. the cure for mental illness is help & understanding, not judgements........
I know that "they" do background checks to your grandparents for some jobs. So yeah, it's worse than that.
Well everything is first ignored. Then it is discriminated against.
And FINALLY, understood and accepted.
There may be abuses, ones we need to guard against but in the long run
this is help for those that are ill, ones we once placed in the most awful places
( homes for the insane ) just to keep from seeing or dealing with them.
I do not believe the conclusion of the study. Schizophrenia may be confused with some types of autism but other than that most of these conditions are different altogether or represent the reactions of normal people to situations that are too much for them to cope with.
I can see why you would think this, however when people are faced with situations that they cannot cope with personality disorders are usually what will surface. Etiology is almost always childhood trauma. severity of the disorder is proportional to the severity of the abuse suffered. In adults PTSD will occur,This is much under rated espicially in combat vets. There is very little effective treatment for either. However the disorders described above in the article have a biological etiology. It is almost always a chemical imbalance of serotonin (depression), and dopamine( schizophrenia). They are treatable with medication. A great deal of patients do respond to meds. Unfortunatlely not all do respond. Hopefully this research can lead to better meds. This will more than liklely take many years to happen, but it is a beginning and it is hopeful.
David,
In fact, many of these disorders have commonalities and are not reactions of normal people to situations that are "too much". Bipolar disease and Major Depression are both likely genetic (based on adoption studies). Mild/moderate, or reactive depression may be the result in normal people to critical overload or crises. ADD and ADHD are also genetically linked (adoption studies, again). The environment is a factor but not essential to the onset of these disorders. All five appear to have something to do with the ability to deal with internal/external stimulation, focus and sustained concentration, modulation of experiences and reactions, etc.
As someone who has Mild Bi-polar disorder and Major Depression, has a niece with bi-polar disorder, had a brother with ADHD, has a nephew with Autism Spectrum Disorder and another nephew with bi-polar disorder and had a mother with bi-polar disorder ... I believe the results of this study. It worries me for my 6 year old son, though. I don't believe we have schizophrenic disorder that has cropped up in our family ... so in a way I worry that the ONE part of the 5 connected disorders may hit him. I was already aware that the 5 connected disorders have a genetic component - as well as dyslexia which my brother had - so I am perhaps hyper-aware of potential problems in my child.
David, think of most mental illnesses as being similar to the primary color chart, if my pasted link works see below
While you have several major areas of illness, they all overlap at some point. OCD is a component of other illnesses while depression is almost always a part of many illnesses. Bipolar is accompanied by depression and sometime OCD. See the point?
I will agree with the "biological etiology" part because said "disorders" are written or encoded in the DNA of the brain's neurons.
And given the fact that they are "written in the DNA" ...... then how is it logically possible for any one to intelligently attribute their "cause(s)" to a chemical imbalance.
Thus said, me thinks said "chemical imbalance" is most probably the byproduct of said problem, not the cause.
Medications are incapable of curing cultural "offensive" personality traits that were environmentally nurtured into one's DNA memories. Said medications are only capable of "masking" the effects caused by said.
If it is a "nurtured" problem, then it has to be, per say, "un-nurtured" to cure it. But only the "patient" him/her self is capable of executing said "un-nurturing" treatment of/for themselves.
Samc, if I am reading your argument correctly, you are saying that it is up to the individual to cast off the mental health issues they might have. So in other words, you would also believe that it is up to Diabetics to throw off that disease and for people with birth defects to throw off the birth defect since all of those are or can be attributed to both a genetic predisposition and "nurture"?
Your argument sucks. It is incorrect and bigoted. I hope that you never have to deal with any other mental illness than the bigotry and stupidity that your argument reeks of.
Cat-12, me thinks that it is you who is claiming that diabetes and physical birth defects are caused by mental health issues related to one's environmental nurturing, ....... not I.
And PS, .... Cat-12, ..... those persons who know "what" causes those "mental health issues" really don't have to worry about dealing with them ..... because they "nip-them-in-the-bud" before they ever become a problem.
Just like I tell people not to "waste their money" purchasing those HIGH PRICED prescription "NO SMOKING" patches and medications ....... when Lemon Drop candy is just as effective in aiding one to cure their "urges" to light up a cigarette .... and are one hell of a lot cheaper to buy.
Genetic mapping does not mean genetic re-engineering. This is very important new information. It is likely that some reading disabilities are on the same portion of the dna as creativity. To suggest that you could correct the inability to read, but suffer the loss of imagination would be foolhardy. The outcome of information about genetics and brain biochemistry are going to lead to as more breakthroughs than the government sponsored (therefore, evil) exploration by NASA beginning in the 1960's. Instead of looking for outer frontiers, this type of work will be any innovations is aimed at the inner frontiers.
I work with individuals with a wide variety of mental illnesses. Many of these individuals and their families will be the recipients of this type of research.
I work with menatally ill patients. I cannot count the number of charts I have read where a patient had a cousin a grandparent an aunt or an uncle that had the same diagnosis. I imagine this research has been going on for better than 10 years. It would make a good master's thesis if one could gather enough data on the subject.
My daughter and I have PTSD with a genetic link -- her father
Once the genes that identify mental disorder can be identified, individuals possessing the gene could be excluded from firearm ownership.
I think you'd have some of us that agree, and others arguing that we have rights too. Just because a diabetic has the illness doesn't mean that a little sugar here and there will kill them (or anyone else). What about fat people? Take away all food but fruits and vegetables? Catch my drift? I'm certainly not pro guns in the haands of all mentally diagnosed persons, but there could be a common ground.
ADHD has been identified as a neuro-biological disorder, not a mental illness, as the writer here wrongly classifies it.
I think the suggestion is that mental illnesses are likely ALL neuro-biological disorders, in that they involve disrupted brain biology. Neurodevelopmental would imply disorders that affect a person during infancy/childhood--i.e. "developmental" phases--although I would surmise that "developmental" really applies to some degree throughout the lifespan.
Not MS, not MS, not MS
Why you people making jokey jokey on serious nut-case problem? This study is brilliant...because in few word we can, definitively say, he or she is 'an insane idiot" or "mentally challenged and mentally unstable at the same time" (MCMUS - new diagnosis label).
It is like that character in the comic series who, ever time when asked to add two plus two, gets so frustrated with the challenge he starts shooting. He can now officially receive the diagnosis MCMUS with common genetic root. Case closed!
WTH?!?!? Autism is NOT a mental illness!!! It's a developmental disorder & there's a big difference between the two!!!
One can call autism a "developmental disorder" simply because it is caused by the lack of adequate nurturing during the child's first few years of mental development.
Ashland - you are correct. Autism is not a mental illness. I am getting so tired of how the media misconstrues autism.
Mental Illness seems to carry a negative connotation with you, that it is something to be ashamed of. Autism Spectrum Disorder is in the DSM - therefore it is characterized at least partially as a mental illness.
Well on the bright side... If we get rid of all the mentally ill we can wipe out Mental illness in one generation!
The bonus for that is that Gun deaths will decline and there will be no need for more gun bans!
Most likely, the same genetic variants that have a place in the expression of mental illness most likely play key roles in human cognition and intelligence. The hypo manic state of bi polar individuals is often cited subjectively and by clinicians as being full of highly creative and fruitful endeavors. Some forms of autism are joined with blunted emotional social skills but highly intelligent. If we " find a cure" for mental illness genetically, I hope we don't also throw away critical elements of genius.
It doesn't matter what happens between those people in the study, I blame mental illness on a cycle possibly EMP cycles of an LFO machine. The LIDA machine and machines like the DUGA-3 in fact. I've been in for a catatonic problem and I linked it right down to ground zero, in the hospital I became not like my self, I know how I am and whatever kind of tech they have it's backwards against humanity. Think Tea Party think rich people confused by their tender. Think Godless people trying to find a way to make money. Some people are effected in the womb others get lucky but are affected throughout their lives in turmoil. MENTAL ILLNESS IT IS A SCAM! WHAT CAN'T CHANGE YOUR MIND?
Kristopher, you need a few more, or a few less, buzzes from that machine. You do not make any sense!
Ha, ha, ha.
This study only serves to exemplify how little is understood and how much is misunderstood about the human mind.
Dickworth
If they look further into this, my bet is they will also find
that they can lump various addictive deseases(alcoholism etc) right in there with those five!
Greg,
I believe they already have. Since you don't hear Alcoholism or drug dependence referred to as a "Desease" any longer. There have been numerous studies that say Addiction and dependence ARE genetic traits.
For example; Three of my grandparents were severe Alcoholics, my fraternal grandmother died less than a year after my dad was born...normally the trait, or tendency toward addiction skips a generation. Fortunately, neither my brother or I have addictive personalily, unless you count women. I have three cousins and an aunt an uncle who were addicts. My aunt and uncle died young, same with one of my cousins. All of my grandparents lived long abnoxious lives and caused all kinds of chaos before they passed.
Right you are, Greg-20, ..... all per say addictions are self nurtured "desires".
per se