Overlap Between Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder? More Data

British researchers find a genetic link to susceptibility to affective dysregulation, regardless of diagnosis.

The diagnostic nomenclature in psychiatry retains Kraepelin’s distinction between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but even he later admitted that he could not always distinguish between the two. There is inconsistent evidence that each disorder is associated with polymorphisms in the chromosomal region 13q32-q34 containing the locus for the D-amino acid oxidase activator (DAOA/G30). These British investigators searched for associations between specific DAOA/G30 polymorphisms and bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or history of psychosis or of mood disorder.

The researchers selected 9 of 19 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The study population was 706 patients with bipolar I disorder, 709 with schizophrenia, and 1416 controls. No pat…

Reviewing Author

Steven Dubovsky, MD