Schizophrenia and bipolar understanding advanced

Common genetic variants contribute to the risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, an international research consortium has discovered. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are common and often devastating brain disorders, affecting around one per cent of the world's population. A team including Cardiff University scientists has found new molecular evidence that 11 genetic regions have strong links with these diseases, including six regions not previously observed. The researchers also found that many of these DNA variations contribute to both diseases. The findings, reported by the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium (PGC), represent significant advances in these severe and debilitating disorders. The findings, based on genetic data from tens of thousands of patients, have just been published online in two papers . Professors Michael O'Donovan, Michael Owen and Nick Craddock from the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff's School of Medicine, Cardiff University, made a significant contribution of data, analysis and management to the study.