"Stronger Neural Connections May Trump Genetic Risk For Bipolar Disorder" - Aggie Mika
Bipolar disorder often runs in families, but genetics alone don’t determine whether one develops the disease, said Sophia Frangou, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She and her colleagues wondered why siblings of affected people, despite having a slightly higher chance of developing mental illness, typically don’t. Dr. Frangou emphasizes that avoiding disease is a matter of adaptive neural mechanisms. “We have to stop thinking about why people become unwell and question why people who have all the risks to become unwell stay well,” she said.
- Sophia Frangou, MD, PhD, Professor, Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai