Friday, September 30, 2016

Risks of developing mental health problems if brother or sister affected

That is the title of this article I am reviewing today. "What is the risk of developing a mental disorder if a brother or sister has the condition? Now a large survey using data from all patients hospitalized in psychiatric wards in Israel, and their siblings, has given some answers: having a sibling with schizophrenia increases your risk of developing the condition by a factor of x10, with increased risks of developing bipolar disorder and other mental disorders.  Similar increases are seen with siblings of patients with bipolar disorder. This is the first study to assess risk of developing any psychiatric diagnosis in siblings of all patients hospitalized for any type of mental disorder in an entire population, and is presented at the ECNP neuroscience congress in Vienna." All of this I do not understand for my case.  None of my brother or sisters have a mental disorder.  The only ones in my family that have mental illness is a cousin on my moms side and a second cousin on my dads side. I do not think I will ever know before I die why I have this mental illness.
The article goes on to say: "The lifetime chance of suffering a mental disorder is extremely high. It is estimated that each year 38.2% of the EU population suffers from a mental disorder, corresponding to 164.8 million persons affected. It is known that siblings of patients with major mental disorders have an increased risk of suffering from the same disorder, but until now the risks have not been quantified
Now an international team has examined the rates of mental disorders in the families of 6111 Israeli patients who had been hospitalised with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression. They compared them to over 74,000 controls, age-and gender matched controls, taken from the Israeli Population Registry, which records all births, deaths, marriages and divorces in the country. By comparing the relative rates of mental disorders, they were able to show just how much more siblings are at risk of the same, and also other mental health conditions."  I really would like to know why I have this disease and even though I high functioning it has caused me problems in my life.  I recieved my first breakdown when I was twenty seven.  Looking back on my life though I believe I had symptoms when I was nineteen and married it did affected my marriage and is one of the reasons I am not still married.
The article ends: "If a brother or sister has schizophrenia, a sibling has x10 greater chance of themselves suffering from schizophrenia. They also have x6 to x8 increased chance of suffering from schizoaffective disorder, and x7 to x20 greater risk of suffering from bipolar disorder than the general population. If a brother or sister suffers from bipolar disorder, then their siblings have x4 greater chance of suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other psychiatric disorders. According to lead researcher, Prof. Mark Weiser MD: "This is a large study which allows us to put meaningful figures on the risks of developing mental disorders after they have arisen in a brother or sister. The figures are quite striking, with x10 risk of developing schizophrenia, and similar risks once a sibling has developed bipolar disorder. These results are important clinically, as they encourage mental health workers to be aware of the increased risk of psychiatric disorders in siblings of patients. These results can also be used by researchers studying the genetic underpinnings of mental disorders, as they indicate that the same genes might be associated with increased risk for various psychiatric disorders. There was no external funding for this work."  I have two sisters and two brothers and none of them have a mental illness.  I have a lot of cousins and none of them have this disease except for the cousin that had this disease and committed suicide.  I knew why he committed suicide the state hospital in Oregon said if he came back he was going to spend the rest of his life there and he was only twenty years old.  I know that when I was released from the state hospital and relapsed here on the streets I  did not want to go back because I thought I would never get out again I was wrong they only kept me for a weekend.

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