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The Link Between Genetics and Bipolar Disorder

There is a growing pool of researchers and scientists focusing on genetics and bipolar disorder. There is increasing evidence for a genetic component in the causation of bipolar disorder.

One way that genetics and bipolar disease are researched is to perform twin studies and gene linkage studies.

In specific terms, the monozygotic concordance rate for the disorder is seventy percent. That means that if someone has bipolar disorder, their identical twin has a seventy percent likelihood of having the disorder as well. Recent studies have shown a lower rate, of around 40 percent, and these types of twin studies are ongoing.

Genetics and bipolar disorder are studied through gene research as well. In 2003, for example, a group of American and Canadian researchers published a paper that used gene linkage techniques to identify a mutation in the GRK3 gene as a possible cause of as many as ten percent of bipolar disorder cases. Discovering the link in this gene is significant in pushing forward understanding of bipolar disorder in general.

The identified gene is associated with a kinase enzyme called G protein receptor kinase 3, which appears to be involved in dopamine metabolism. This is important because it may provide a possible means of creating new drugs to treat bipolar disorder.

In addition, genetics and bipolar disorder were also studied in a 2007 gene linkage study. This study, by an international team coordinated by the National Institute of Mental Health, identified a number of genes likely to also be involved in bipolar disorder, suggesting that the disorder may be related to multiple genes.

Generally speaking, the link between genetics and bipolar disorder has not been completely established, but it is clear that there has been progress in the research. There are many promising studies that look to link genes and the disorder, so that treatment can be more targeted and diagnosis can be more conclusive.

Famous People with Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a fairly common psychiatric disease, but those suffering from the disease may feel alone and disengaged from normal society. This is a false feeling, however, because there are many famous people with bipolar disorder.

There are many famous people with bipolar disorder who have verified and confirmed that they have the disease. In adidition, there is a long list of famous people who are suspected of having had bipolar disorder, but there was no firm diagnosis during their lifetime.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill keeps a comprehensive list of famous people with bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses. Among the famous people with bipolar disorder are musicians such as Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven is suspected of having bipolar disorder, but he may also have been a victim of lead poisoning.

Other famous people with bipolar disorder of the modern era include Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of the band Black Sabbath and a reality television star, Scott Weiland, lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and later Velvet Revolver, and Brian Wilson of the Beachboys.

In addition, Kurt Cobain had bipolar disorder, and was diagnosed, but did not properly comply with his medication and other treatments, leading to his suicide.

Numerous famous people with bipolar disorder come from the world of literature. Among the famous writers who were likely sufferers of the disorder are Hans Christian Andersen, Lord Byron, Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
William Faulkner, Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemingway, and John Keats.

Poet Sylvia Plath wrote of her disorder, “It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous and positive and despairing negative.” In addition, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sidney Sheldon also suffered from bipolar disorder.

Other famous people with bipolar disorder include politicians like Winston Churchill and possibly Abraham Lincoln. Actors and actresses with the disorder include Richard Dreyfuss, Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton, Vivien Leigh, and Jean Claude Van Damme. News anchor Jane Pauley and artist Vincent Van Gogh were also afflicted.

Diagnosing Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar, a disorder that is also sometimes called manic depression, is a difficult disorder to diagnose. One key symtom of bipolar disorder is flux. Individuals with the illness see changes, or fluctuations, in mood, energy, thought, sleep, and activity.

The diagnosic subtypes of bipolar disorder are static descriptions of a disease in constant change, and individuals may stay in one subtype or change between the varying degress of bipolar over the course of their illness.

As clinically diagnosed, there are currently four types of bipolar illness. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-TR, the method used to diagnose the disorder and other mental diseases, details four categories of bipolar disorder. These categories are Bipolar I, Bipolar II, Cyclothymia, and Bipolar Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.

For a diagnosis of Bipolar I disorder, there must be a manic or mixed episode, but a depressive episdoe is not required for diagnosis. Though it is not required, a depressive episode frequently occurs.

Meanwhile, Bipolar II, which occurs more frequently is usually characterized by at least one episode of hypomania and at least one depression episode.

A diagnosis of Cyclothymic Disorder requires the presence of numerous hypomanic episodes, intermingled with depressive episodes that aren’t up to the full criteria that characterizes a full depressive episode. The main point of Cyclothymia is that there is a low grade cycling of moods which seems to be a personality trait to a casual observer, but is really a form of bipolar that interferes with normal functioning.

For those individuals who seem to be suffering from some type of bipolar disorder as characterized by mood swings with highs and lows, but the patient doesn’t meet the criteria for one of the subtypes outlined above, he or she may have Bipolar Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.

Most bipolar patients will be depressed when they first seek help, and it is easy for these patients to be misdiagnosed as having just clinical depression. It is important for practicioners to investigate with the patient, and his or her family and friends to determine if a manic or hypomanic episode has ever occurred.