epigenetic alterations of psychiatric disorders: discordant twins

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Twin Study Reveals Epigenetic Alterations of Psychiatric Disorders

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2011) — In the first study to systematically

investigate genome-wide epigenetic differences in a large number of

psychosis discordant twin-pairs, research at the Institute of Psychiatry

(IoP) at King's College London provides further evidence that epigenetic

processes play an important role in neuropsychiatric disease.

Published in /Human Molecular Genetics/, the findings may offer

potential new avenues for treatment.

Previous quantitative genetic analyses of schizophrenia and bipolar

disorder reveal strong inherited components to both. However, although

heritability for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is estimated at 70%,

disease concordance between twin-pairs is far from 100%, indicating that

non-genetic factors play an important role in the onset of the diseases....

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110921120039.htm

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*Story Source:*

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by

Science/Daily/ staff) from materials provided by *King's College

London* <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/>

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*Journal Reference*:

1. E. L. Dempster, R. Pidsley, L. C. Schalkwyk, S. Owens, A.

Georgiades, F. Kane, S. Kalidindi, M. Picchioni, E. Kravariti, T.

Toulopoulou, R. M. Murray, J. Mill.

2. *Disease-associated epigenetic changes in monozygotic twins

discordant for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder*.

3. /Human Molecular Genetics/, 2011; DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddr416

<http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddr416>

4. http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/22/hmg.ddr416