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Family, twin, and adoption studies of bipolar disorder
Author(s) -
Smoller Jordan W.,
Finn Christine T.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of medical genetics part c: seminars in medical genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.419
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1552-4876
pISSN - 1552-4868
DOI - 10.1002/ajmg.c.20013
Subject(s) - bipolar disorder , twin study , family studies , heritability , family aggregation , family history , genetic epidemiology , first degree relatives , psychology , epidemiology , psychiatry , clinical psychology , genetics , medicine , biology , population , environmental health , cognition , radiology
Family, twin, and adoption studies have been essential in defining the genetic epidemiology of bipolar disorder over the past several decades. Family studies have documented that first‐degree relatives of affected individuals have an excess risk of the disorder, while twin studies (and to a lesser extent, adoption studies) suggest that genes are largely responsible for this familial aggregation. We review these studies, including the magnitude of familial risk and heritability estimates, efforts to identify familial subtypes of bipolar disorder, and the implications of family/genetic data for validating nosologic boundaries. Taken together, these studies indicate that bipolar disorder is phenotypically and genetically complex. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.