London, Sept 20 (ANI): Common genetic variants could be to blame for contributing to a person's risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, researchers say.
A team of over 250 researchers from more than 20 countries have found significant genetic overlap between the debilitating mental disorders.
The study of more than 50,000 adults ages 18 and older provides new molecular evidence that 11 DNA regions in the human genome have strong association with these diseases, including six regions not previously observed.
Patrick F. Sullivan, MD, Ray M. Hayworth and Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and professor of genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues also found that many of these DNA variants contribute to both diseases.
The study that focused on schizophrenia identified "strong evidence for seven different places in the human genome, five of which were new and two previously implicated, that contain DNA changes that are significantly associated with schizophrenia," Sullivan said.
And in a joint analysis of a schizophrenia and bipolar disorder sample, the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium found three different DNA regions, or loci, in which both disorders reached genome-wide statistical significance.
"This tells us that these disorders, which many of us have considered to be separate things, actually share fundamental similarity," Sullivan said.
The study was recently published in the journal Nature Genetics. (ANI)
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