Phenotypic and molecular heterogeneity of bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is recognized as having a strong familial basis. Identification of genes influencing the risk of illness in families will help better understand the disease processes as well as open new treatment opportunities. Search for these susceptibility genes has been progressing only slowly, most likely due to the fact that the condition we label as bipolar disorder may comprise several different disorders, each associated with specific genes as well as with specific clinical characteristics. Building on our previous work, which pointed to several specific chromosomal regions, we will test whether our findings apply to forms of bipolar disorder characterized by specific clinical features such as symptoms, family history, long term clinical course, and also the response to particular long terms treatments. Our studies thus could also help in linking patients' genetic makeup with a choice of effective long term treatment.