Robert Preidt HealthDay News Posted: Sunday, August 11, 2013, 2:00 PM SUNDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Five major mental disorders share common inherited genetic variations, a new study finds. The overlap is highest between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (15 percent), moderate between bipolar disorder and depression and between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression (about 10 percent), and lowest between schizophrenia and autism (3 percent). Overall, common genetic variations accounted for 17 percent to 28 percent of risk for the five mental disorders, according to the study published in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Nature Genetics, which the researchers say is the largest genome-wide study of its kind. The project involved more than 300 scientists at 80 research centers in 20 countries and was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The investigators analyzed the genomes of several thousand people with the five mental disorders and people without the disorders. "Since our study only looked at common gene variants, the total genetic overlap between the disorders is likely higher," study co-leader Naomi Wray, of the University of Queensland in Australia, said in an NIMH news release. "Shared variants with smaller effects, rare variants, mutations, duplications, … Continue reading →

Public release date: 11-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Bobbi Nodell bnodell@uw.edu 206-543-8309 University of Washington Some patients with a rare type of epilepsy called epilepsy aphasia have something else in common. They have mutations in the same gene. Epilepsy aphasia disorders are characterized by seizures and speech abnormalities. University of Washington researchers headed a recent study on genetic association. Their report, "GRIN2A mutations cause epilepsy-aphasia spectrum disorders," is published in the Aug. 11 issue of Nature Genetics. The scientists sequenced genes in 519 patients with severe seizure disorders. Within the group, 44 patients had epilepsy aphasia and four of those -- or 10 percent -- and their affected family members had mutations in the GRIN2A gene. "For a long time, people have debated whether this type of epilepsy had a genetic component, mostly because so few families have the disorder. To find a genetic cause is really interesting," said Gemma Carvill, senior fellow at the UW Department of Pediatrics, Division of Genetic Medicine, and the lead author of the study. Carvill said to find 10 percent of patients with a genetic mutation for a particular epilepsy disorder "is quite sizable." "In the families we looked at, multiple … Continue reading →

Participants Learn Their Risk for Complex Diseases Doni Bloomfield To Know or Not To Know: Dr Kroenthal holds a vial of DNA An email popped up in Hershel Richmans inbox. Your new personalized risk report is now available through the CPMC web portal! the email cheerfully informed him. Its contents were tactfully vague: some talk of genetic counselors and a medicine collaborative. But this wasnt some credit report spam, or a Nigerian phishing scam. No, Richman, a retired environmental lawyer and former president of Jewish Learning Venture, a not-for-profit based in Pennsylvania, was about to find out his relative likelihood of developing macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. Richman had given the New Jerseybased Coriell Institute his family history, his medical history, his diet and exercise routines and his DNA as one of 7,500 volunteers seeking to help advance mankinds understanding of the genetic basis for disease. The genetics lab had scanned his genes, crunched the numbers, weighed his odds and were ready to tell him how likely he was to go blind. Im the type of guy who wants to go to the bottom line, says Richman, and so he breezed past … Continue reading →