Schizophrenia and Epilepsy May Run in Families

Schizophrenia and epilepsy co-occur at elevated rates within individuals and within families, researchers reported in the May 1 Biological Psychiatry. These results suggest that epilepsy and schizophrenia may share some of the same genes.

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia may also share some of the same genes since a Swedish study found that the two illnesses often overlap within families. Moreover, the two illnesses share some of the same brain abnormalities and symptoms. See Psychiatric News here. For a primer on psychiatric illness and genetics, see Psychiatric Genetics: Applications in Clinical Practice by American Psychiatric Publishing.

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