Australian scientists isolate manic depression gene

The research is the result of two decades of work, during which DNA was extracted from the blood samples of people suffering from bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression.

While previous research has identified genes that could indicate a vulnerability to bipolar disorder, the study is the first to replicate its findings from three different sources.

Scientists from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales used a number of families, unrelated patients and therapeutic drug mouse models to obtain their results.

Each of the methods led them to a gene called FAT, which works with a protein that is involved in connecting brain cells together, according to researcher Dr. Ian Blair.

"What we need to do now is find out exactly how it contributes to the increased risk of bipolar disorder," he told AFP on Friday.

But Blair said while people with this particular form of the gene were twice as likely to develop bipolar disorder as other people, the gene was not the only factor.

"Bipolar is a complex genetic disease -- it's caused by the interaction of multiple genes and also environmental factors," he said.

"This (gene) is one of those risk factors. This increases your risk of getting bipolar. It doesn't cause bipolar."

Scientists still don't know the biological basis of bipolar disorder, a psychiatric illness characterised by mood swings resulting in periods of mania and depression, interspersed with stable periods.

About two out of every 100 people live with the illness, with one in six sufferers committing suicide.

Lithium, which can have serious side-effects such as tremors and weight gain, has been prescribed for bipolar disorder for decades but it is not known why it is effective, Blair said.

"There is a real need to get some drugs that target bipolar," he said.

The research was published this month in the medical journal Molecular Psychiatry. Australian scientists isolate manic depression gene http://www.physorg.com/news9852.html

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repost: why does Scientology demonize Psychiatry?

So that current victims will not learn the fact that Dianetics is nothing more than a perverted version of the state of the art of psychiatric "Advanced Technology" in 1943 - (Reference: William Sargant Ph.D - Battle For the Mind)

Scientology, at its lower levels, is, similarly a refried and also perverted version of Jungian free association techniques that also, has been laced with Alestair Crowley's satanic invocations which strip you of your conscience, while you are being told you are on the bridge to "Total Freedom" my a man twice convicted of FRAUD who was a master stage hypnotist - L Ron Hubbard.

At Scientology's highest secret levels you are essentially stripped of any money you still have while being made physically ill and mentally addicted by long exposure to the E-meter's electrical effects and driven over the edge..

IMAGE: tom cruise airborne jumping the couch

into a state where you are mentally or even physically unable to seek justice for having been defrauded by Scientology's lies.

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