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Familial Transmission of Major Affective Disorders

Is there Evidence Supporting the Distinction between Unipolar and Bipolar Disorders?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ming T. Tsuang
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School, Director, Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Mass. Mental Health Center; Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, Massachusetts 02401, USA
Stephen V. Faraone
Affiliation:
Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Mass. Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School; Health Statistician (Psychiatric Genetics), Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center
Jerome A. Fleming
Affiliation:
Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Mass. Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School; Health Statistician (Psychiatry), Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center

Summary

The two-threshold multifactorial polygenic (MFP) model was applied to blind family study data, collected in a long-term follow-up and family study of major affective disorders. This model tested whether bipolar and unipolar disorders are manifestations of the same underlying factors or if they are independently caused disorders. The hypothesis that bipolar and unipolar disorders are, respectively, severe and mild forms of the same disorder was supported. There was little evidence for different familial aetiologies for bipolar and unipolar disorders in our sample.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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