Genetic changes in psychotic disorders
Two major psychotic illnesses, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression), are related disorders that may have similar genetic causes. These findings could lead to a better diagnostic test, early treatment and/or new treatment.
They have shown that sufferers of the two disorders have abnormalities in key genes responsible for proteins in the central nervous system related to a compound called myelin. Myelin covers and insulates neurons, the nerve cells in the brain. They also confirmed earlier research that showed that patients with both disorders also have a reduction in brain cells, called oligodendrocytes, which make myelin.These results provide strong evidence for oligodendrocyte and myelin dysfunction in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and could form the basis of a diagnostic test to identify people at risk. If people at risk could be identified, they could be treated before they get the illness, since the evidence shows that having the illness causes the damage.
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