New research bolsters the idea that the risk for psychiatric and developmental disorders isn’t specific to particular conditions— and that could mean new opportunities to treat mental illnesses that focus more on their common genetic roots.
Mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia clearly run in families, but neuroscientists have always assumed that the biological drivers behind these disorders were distinct. However, expanding on results reported earlier this year from psychiatry’s largest-ever experiment, researchers now report that known genetic variations account for 17% to 29% of the risk for schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). And risk for one condition is often strongly linked with risk for others.
Read the full, original story here: Common Genetic Ground Found for Depression, Schizophrenia, Autism
