Insight into psychiatric care could be gained by research which has found that the same set of genes can be traced in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
The comprehensive study has revealed that a certain set of genetic variations may in fact be responsible for one third of cases where schizophrenia could develop.
Dr Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, commented: "If some of the same genetic risks underlie schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, perhaps these disorders originate from some common vulnerability in brain development."
Dr Pablo Gejman, of the NorthShore University HealthSystem Research Institute in Illinois added that the research illustrates how important it is to understand the role of genes as well as DNA sequences.
Schizophrenia is characterised as a psychiatric disorder that alters an individual's perception, relating specifically to the five senses.
