Genetic susceptibility to a deficit in context processing across the schizophrenia / bipolar disorder diagnostic divide.

精神分裂症和双相情感障碍是令人衰弱的精神疾病，影响着大约2%的人口。研究表明，高级心理过程(认知)缺陷是精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的常见症状。几个增加精神分裂症风险的基因也会增加双相情感障碍的风险。这些发现反映了许多患者出现这两种障碍症状的临床经验，并表明，与当前研究的趋势一样，研究两种障碍症状的人可能更有成效。这个项目由一名研究精神病学家进行，旨在检查认知的一个方面，即背景处理；注意事件发生的背景的能力。使用一种新的测试，将在同时有精神分裂症和双相情感障碍症状的人中调查情境处理。将对精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的两个风险基因进行研究，以确定它们可以预测测试中的表现。如果精神分裂症和双相情感障碍患者表现出这种认知缺陷，并且风险基因增加了表现这种缺陷的机会，这将对这些精神障碍的分类以及对严重精神疾病中这些缺陷的原因和潜在治疗方法的研究提供信息。

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are debilitating mental illnesses which affect around 2% of the population. Research suggests that deficits in higher mental processes (cognition) are common to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Several genes that increase risk for schizophrenia also increase risk for bipolar disorder. These findings reflect clinical experience where many patients present with symptoms of both disorders and suggest it may be more productive to study people with symptoms of both disorders rather than separately as is the tendency in current research.This project, conducted by a research psychiatrist, aims to examine a facet of cognition, context processing; the ability to notice the setting in which an event occurs. Using a novel test context processing will be investigated in people with symptoms of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Two risk genes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder will be investigated to see it they predict performance on the test.If people with schizophrenia AND bipolar disorder show this cognitive deficit and the risk genes increase the chances of showing such deficits this will have implications for the classification of these mental disorders as well as informing research into the causes and potential treatment of these deficits in severe mental illness.