Continuing the Discussion Regarding Recent Research
Going back to the specific research we’ve been discussing this week, one additional point we need to keep in mind is that the productivity of research is accelerating. Consider the computer industry. Within my lifetime, the work now achieved by a calculator found in every high school student’s backpack previously took a room full of processing machines the size of refrigerators to crunch the same calculations.
These leaps in understanding and technology are now the reality of medical research as well. The mapping of the human genome was completed in 2003 after only 13 years of intense collaborative and integrated research. The results of this project are now informing the research of every medical field.
The genome project was critical to the work reported in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia articles published this week. These studies were an incredible breakthrough in understanding for both of these disorders as well as many other mental illnesses. These studies are very large and approach the hypothesis of the cause from a different method, but replicated the results of many years of previous research across many disciplines -- psychology, psychiatry, chemistry, biology, etc. -- that have indicated a strong genetic component to both these disorders.
The incredible significance of these studies is that they will narrow and focus future research bringing to bear the contributions of many more research teams. I feel confident in predicting that we will see future gains in understanding moving the hypothesis of cause much more quickly toward theory. And these gains will be informing the research of treatment modalities as well. I expect that in the next few years we will see treatment options vastly different -- much more targeted with far fewer side effects -- that are now available.~Kimberly
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Comments
I have bipolar. In my researching my illness and other mental illnesses I’ve begun to suspect that bipolar and schizophrenia might be linked. They are not the same disease but a similar genetic predisposition may be involved.
Anyway, that’s my opinion on the subject.
I would not be surprised to learn that bipolar illness and schizophrenia share some genetic characteristics, although their brain-mapping looks quite different. Contrary to the concept that they are discrete illnesses, I have had friends whose seriously manic episodes resulted in hallucinations, delusions, and severe bouts of dissociation resulting in their being on short and sometimes long-term therapy with anti-psychotics like haldol. My ear about the media is that often they have a tin ear for the importance of emphasing that all mental illness come in different flavors and degrees of severity. Many people picture schizophrenics as homeless people with severe thought disorders who are no subject to effective treatment. Certainly that is true in many cases. But many people who have bipolar illness are able to take their meds and benefit from therapy permitting them to lead relatively productive lives. It is hard enough to live with the stigma of being b.p. without having family members and the public associate the illness with schizophrenia. All of this is made far worse by the paucity and poor quality of the mental health care available (or not available, as is often the case) in this country.