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By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 20, 2011 An international team of more than 250 researchers from 20 countries have completed a landmark study of the relationship between genetic variations and mental illness. Investigators studied more than 50,000 adults and found that common genetic variations contribute to a person’s risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Investigators say the findings provide new molecular evidence that 11 DNA regions, including six regions not previously observed, are linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Researchers participating in the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium have published two papers on their findings in the journal Nature Genetics .
Two new studies provide additional details on best practices for treating people with bipolar disorder , a sometimes debilitating illness marked by severe mood swings between depression and mania. The two studies are part of the NIMH-funded Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder ( STEP-BD ). Both were published in the September 2007 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry .
Medications that target the protein BAG1, which regulates a process that can trigger symptoms in people who have bipolar disorder, may offer a new way of treating the disease, according to NIMH scientists. Their study was published online June 18, 2008, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . People with bipolar disorder , also called manic depressive illness, experience unusually intense emotional states that occur in distinct periods called mood episodes. An overly joyful or overexcited state is called a manic episode, and an extremely sad or hopeless state is called a depressive episode. Among other functions, the protein BAG1 regulates the activity of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs).