NARSAD Researchers Identify Specific Genes and Family Traits Linked to Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and ...( Free Public Event Provides Findin...),Health

Free, Public Event Provides Findings That Include Important Clues Toward the Development of Customized Treatment

GREAT NECK, N.Y., May 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New findings from research supported by NARSAD, the world's leading charity dedicated to mental health research, and conducted by Harvard-affiliated scientists are providing important clues into how genes work to impair various aspects of attention, memory and perception -- the behaviors associated with many psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

To be presented at NARSAD's 3rd annual Boston Mental Health Research Symposium on May 30 at the Harvard Medical School, the studies are shedding new light on how specific genes contribute to the susceptibility to and pathology of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, some of the most severe, chronic and disabling mental illnesses that collectively affect an estimated 40 million Americans. Coming at a time when some treatments for mental illnesses are a matter of trial and error, these findings are paving the way for the development of novel therapies targeted to specific patients and to specific genes.

Donald C. Goff, MD, director of the Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and a leading researcher on the role of genetics in the development of new treatments for schizophrenia, will moderate the symposium. The forum is a free event open to the public.

Folate as a Cause and Treatment for Schizophrenia: Who Will Benefit?

Do genes explain why some people with schizophrenia are helped when they take supplements of the common B vitamin, folate? The answer is yes and now, new NARSAD funded research is examining the reasons why.

According to Dr. Goff, whose pioneering research identified a link between low blood levels of folate and negative schizophrenia symptoms, folate is involved in many different chemical pathways in the brain,
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