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Bipolar Disorder ( Bipolar )

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Bipolar disorder is an often devastating mental illnesses, with high emotional, social and economic impact on the lives of patients and family members [Jin and McCrone, 2015; Miller et al., 2014]. In recent decades, there has been significant progress in developing diagnostic methods for reliably diagnosing severe bipolar disorder (bipolar disorder type I) and some related bipolar “spectrum” disorders (bipolar type II disorder), and there has also been recent progress in identifying some of the genetic loci (through linkage and association analyses) which contribute to severe bipolar disorder. Controversy remains, however, about the diagnostic borders of bipolar disorder, particularly in relation to schizophrenia and schizoaffective …show more content…

Aside from genetic studies, it has previously been noted that there are associations between some of the personality traits (which are quantitative in nature and applicable to all human beings) and some categorical psychiatric conditions like depression and schizophrenia [Koorevaar et al., 2013; Guerra et al., 2000]. Identification of the genetic components of personality traits, at the same time as studies are underway to identify genetic components of bipolar disorder and other psychiatric conditions, offer an opportunity to better understand the interactions and components of the biological components that shape psychological experience and psychiatric illness. The Genetics of Bipolar Disorder in Latino Populations (GBDLP) study employed both categorical diagnoses (DSM-IV) and quantitative measures (including measures of personality) in our assessments of a large number of indivuduals from extended pedigrees with at least one case of bipolar disorder, to allow for the opportunity to identify genes involved in both categorical illnesses and quantitative traits that might show some overlap with bipolar disorder. We have previously reported on the heritability of factors in the Five Factor personality model (NEO) and their correlation with bipolar disorder in this sample of of pedigrees [Hare et al., 2011]. In those studies we reported NEO factor heritability scores as follows: 0.25 for agreeableness, 0.24 for conscientiousness,

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