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Even Kraepelin could not always distinguish between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Two recent research studies build upon earlier findings suggesting that the two disorders share some traits and genes (see JW Psychiatry Oct 29 2007 and Aug 17 2005).
One research group studied brain bank samples of RNA from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex derived from 32 schizophrenia patients, 29 bipolar patients, and 27 healthy controls. Shared expression of 78 genes was found in the two disorders, when shared expression of only 5 would have been expected by chance. Three shared genes were expressed only in the brain. Many of the shared genes were involved in apoptosis and in development of the nervous and immune systems. AGXT2L1, a shared dysregula…