Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are relatives
Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have the same genetic causes, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet.
To study whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have the same genetic causes, Swedish researchers analysed the records of two million families, including almost 36 000 patients with schizophrenia, 40 000 patients with bipolar disorder, and the blood relatives of both.
Their results show that members of families in which someone has either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder run an increased risk of developing the same condition. The results also show that this is chiefly the result of genetic factors, and only slightly due to shared environmental factors. The researchers also found that patients with schizophrenia are also more prone to bipolar disorder, and that relatives of patients with one of the diseases are more likely to have relatives with the other.
According to the Karolinska Institutet researchers, the results, taken as a whole, provide convincing proof that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are very much hereditary diseases, and that they share, in part, a common genetic cause. They also argue that it is important for clinicians and researchers to take this common genetic background into account when studying and treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This throws the current separate classification of the diseases into question.
