Researchers recently discovered that eight different psychiatric conditions share a common genetic basis.
A new study has now honed in on some of those shared genetic variants to understand their properties. They found many are active for longer during brain development and potentially impact multiple stages, suggesting they could be new targets to treat multiple conditions.
“The proteins produced by these genes are also highly connected to other proteins,” explains University of North Carolina geneticist Hyejung Won. “Changes to these proteins in particular could ripple through the network, potentially causing widespread effects on the brain.”
Whatever the cause s of mental illness, society as a whole is highly ill equipped to deal with it. Especially in the United States of America, mental health crises are almost always a police matter. The mentally ill commonly commit petty crimes like disorderly conduct and petit shoplifting (behaviors that tend to be symptoms that are manifestations of certain mental disorders, especially the behaviours that are
covered under the laws against disorderly conduct) and thus often end up in the revolving door that is the Prison Industrial Complex, as county and state correctional institutions have replaced psychiatric hospitals for the most part. While residential mentalhealth institutions still exist, treatment in certain countries is priced so high that it’s typically only availible to the wealthy or those with.extremely generous insurance plans.We clearly need to do better.