Genetic links?

Anyone with bipolar who has a bipolar sibling? Would be interested to hear if there are genetic links?

[WhiteAlice]

The ex bf had a whole bp family. One doctor explained that most disorders, like depression & bp, are genetically significant in the sense that genes will determine a person's level of tolerance for emotions. Then whatever happpens in their environment will trigger certain syndromes. Also, he said that a child develops coping skills in the 1st 4 years if life. So, siblings may genetically be predetermined to react less resilliently to stress, then grow up together in a stressful family, and they can all manifest a condition such as bipolar.

[Olderal]

There definitely are genetic links but a sibling with bipolar does not necessarily mean having bipolar. in fact there is a considerably less than 50% chance of having it. The shawmind publications on Bipolar and depression give details with figures on genetic links but environment (which may be similar for siblings) is also important.

Bipolar depending on its form and severity and the sufferers own inner strength is far from the end of the world and most of us go on to have productive and mainly happy lives although there will usually be less happy periods of depression.

Olderal

[Hidden in reply to Olderal]

I am convinced both genetic and environmental factors have played a significant part in both myself and my sister's bipolar. With a stressful childhood environment and a parent with bipolar symptoms the odds on the likelihood of us both getting this illness were more than 50% .

More research needs to be invested in mental health within families.

[Olderal in reply to Hidden]

I agree with everything you've written Kazza but the ethics and morality of mental health issues are so complicated and a can of worms.

For instance despite some mental health issues within my own family which were not discussed much and I was largely ignorant of, I went through University and then married and had two children. I regarded myself as an emotional Rock, totally stable. Then at age 35 I found that I was n't a rock and was diagnosed with depression. Would I have had children had I known before hand ? What would my wife have wanted to do ? Should I have married even ? Should I have told my kids not to have children ? Should they tell their kids not to have children ? Will their children be greatly prized when mental health is better understood "curable" and out of the box thinking is valued ? What evolutionary purpose is indicated by the survival of families with tendencies to depression ?

These questions are not easily answered. What is a person in a job such as a pilot supposed to do if he develops instability half way through his career ? Will society compensate him ? Will society compensate all with some mental instability ? How would you regulate the potential claimants ? Some would say these questions are best not asked. Others would say that maybe the ability of some unstable people to think in original ways greatly benefits the human race. Who knows ? Hitler certainly did n't think so and he wiped out the people who could have made him ruler of the world except they did n't have an unstable label ,they were called Jews. (he did of course follow the same route with the less stable and handicapped.)

its a very difficult area that I have never seen tackled except by Hitler and a few eugenics enthusiasts who I think are rightly regarded as a bit odd. We know what Hitler was and don't want another one..

Olderal

[Fi68]

Hi Olderal, was interested in the questions you ask, keep asking them! Although we all know and abhor the policies of Hitler and the Nazi Party, there are a shocking number of countries that enacted compulsory sterilisation after the war, and continued up into the 1980's. Some countries even up to 2002. If you look on wikipedia under compulsory sterilisation, it has the sad information. Some of the countries are quite surprising, the USA for instance.