From a genetic point of view, the application of mathematical models to affective disorders has not yet been useful, since they do not indicate a specific mode of transmission. To use these models correctly, we need to identify homogeneous genetic subgroups among those sharing the common phenotypic feature of affective illness. Our useful criterion for this is outcome on long-term lithium therapy, since experimental data suggest the existence of a close relationship between the genetic mechanisms that underly the affective disorders and those that underly outcome on lithium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe analyzed the age-at-onset distributions in a group of 285 patients diagnosed as having major affective disorder, recurrent, either unipolar or bipolar, in order to detect the possible existence of genetic and epidemiological factors affecting their age-at-onset distribution. In fact, since it is known that affective disorders are genetically heterogeneous with respect to the liability systems involved, methodological considerations support the hypothesis of the existence of different ages at onset also. We thus investigated several variables and the significant findings of our study were that bipolarity, at least one affected parent and a low position in the sibship are each associated with earlier age at onset of affective disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychiatric disorders in a sample of spouses of probands with recurrent Primary Affective Disorders (PAD) and in their first degree relatives were evaluated and compared with those in the spouse of control subjects without psychiatric illnesses. No differences were found in the risk for PAD, but spouses of PAD patients and their respective first degree relatives manifested a greater incidence of affective spectrum disorders.
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