Twin Study Reveals Epigenetic Alterations of Psychiatric Disorders

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Twin Study Reveals Epigenetic Alterations of Psychiatric DisordersScienceDaily (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