MAILMAN RESEARCH CENTER
Genetics Laboratory
Mailman Research Center |
The Genetics Laboratory is investigating the roles of genetic and environmental factors in the etiologies of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism.
In related studies we have found that pre- and perinatal complications and stressors are significantly more prevalent in both schizophrenic and bipolar-disordered patients than in their own respective siblings. In other research, we have found that certain neurologic abnormalities and neuropsychological test deficits are significantly more common, compared with control subjects, in both schizophrenics and their non-schizophrenic relatives. Moreover, among patients' unaffected relatives, there are patterns of correlations among risk factors that suggest the interaction of two independent etiologic factors in schizophrenia, and perhaps in bipolar disorder as well.
In complementary collaborative studies we are investigating how obstetrical, neurological, and neuropsychological measures are related to other risk factors (e.g., family history and stressful prenatal events and weather) and to other psychobiological variables associated with schizophrenia, such as eye movement dysfunctions, thought disorder, and anomalies of brain structure and function seen with magnetic resonance (MRI) brain imaging measures.
We are also studying the families of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, to investigate whether certain psychological variables, such as thought disorder and creativity, may be more prevalent in the biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and whether certain characteristics, such as enhanced creativity, may represent potentially adaptive phenotypes associated with genetic liability for these disorders. In earlier studies, for example, we found that the psychologically healthier relatives of manic-depressives were more creative on average than control subjects.
Research Support
Personnel
- Dennis K. Kinney, Ph.D. - Director, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School (e-mail)
- Sherry Anders, Ph.D. - Research Fellow
- Ruth Richards, M.D., Ph.D. - Research Affiliate