Studies of Genes in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

Doctor Anil Malhotra discusses the search for genes in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, both of which are in their infancy.

The search for genes in bipolar disorder parallels the search for genes in schizophrenia – first linkage studies, then association studies, and now whole genome association studies. The search in bipolar disorder may have been a little bit less successful than those in schizophrenia although people could argue that. The whole genome association results that we have seen so far are relatively equivocal both for schizophrenia and for bipolar disorder, so I think it is a little difficult to say that bipolar disorder genetics has had less success than say schizophrenia genetics. I think both are really in their infancy at this point in time.