[Heredity and manic-depressive psychosis]

Abstract

The present article reviews the basic and recent findings of the genetics in manic-depressive illness. The different molecular genetic techniques that have been applied to this research field are presented. Results of linkage and association studies are discussed in regard to the main limitations of these approaches in psychiatric disorders. On the whole, linkage and association studies contributed to the localisation of some potentials vulnerability genes for manic-depression on chromosomes X and 11 and more recently 18.