39 Furthermore, it appears that learn more bipolar disorders are highly heritable conditions.43-45 High rates of affective disorders in first-degree relatives have been reported in children with bipolar disorder. For instance, Faedda et al20 found that 90% of patients with bipolar disorder had a family history of bipolar disorder. Additionally, it has been well documented that children and adolescents with parents diagnosed with a bipolar disorder are at high risk of developing bipolar disorder themselves.14,46,47

Therefore, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in an attempt to better study the course of bipolar disorder and treat patients as soon as possible after symptom onset, patients who are at risk for developing pediatric bipolarity are now being examined. Children of parents with a mood disorder (depression and/or bipolar disorders) not only have an increased

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical risk for developing bipolar disorder, but also other psychiatric disorders. For instance, offspring of parents with a mood disorder were found to be at risk for depression, anxiety, ADHD, DBD diagnoses, and more impaired psychosocial functioning.14,42,47-49 Furthermore, independent of diagnosis, children and adolescents of parents with bipolar disorder have been shown to exhibit higher rates of hostility and irritability Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in comparison with offspring of parents without a psychiatric disorder.50 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Moreover, having only

one parent versus both parents being afflicted with bipolar disorder appears to have additional implications for the youth’s course of illness. For instance, offspring of two parents with bipolar disorder have been found to experience more severe depression and irritability, lack of mood reactivity, and rejection sensitivity in comparison with children with only one parent with bipolar disorder.47 Therefore, a patient’s family history may offer insight into the probability of a child presenting with or eventually developing bipolar disorder. Biological Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical underpinnings Genetic predispositions Due to the observed high heritability to of bipolar disorders, several genetic etiologies of bipolar spectrum disorders have been explored. Multiple genomic regions have been associated with bipolar disorder and the age of onset of mood symptoms.51-54 For instance, regions on chromosomes 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22, and X have been found to be possibly linked to bipolar disorder (see ref 55 for review).43,55,57 Furthermore, several functional candidate genes have been identified to be possibly linked to bipolar disorder including catechol-Omcthyl transferase (COMT), brain-derived neurotropic factor, tyrosine hydroxylase, D-amino acid oxidase activator, and neuregulin (see ref 57 for review).