2003/08/08 by Jordan W. Smoller, Christine Finn · 2 citations
Medicine · Health Professions · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · #Bipolar Disorder and Treatment #Adolescent and Pediatric Healthcare #Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders #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
paper · doi:10.1002/ajmg.c.20013
openalex publication_date 2003/08/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
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.