Thursday, April 27, 2017

Link Between Genes and PTSD

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170425102817.htm
Post traumatic stress disorder is a mental illness that impacts many around the world. Genetic link has been found between PTSD and schizophrenia, and since schizophrenia is more common in women, this suggests that women are also at greater risk for PTSD. A recent study looked into the genetics of those that have PTSD and those that have lived through traumatic events and not developed the mental illness. They believed that genetic variation was the reason why a person would be resilient to PTSD or be at risk for it. The study focused on about 20000 people from 11 different ethnic backgrounds. The found that 29% of the risk of getting PTSD is contributed to genes. This puts PTSD as one of the most genetically influenced mental illness. Researchers hope by being able to identify a patient's risk for getting PTSD that they can take preventative measures to make sure that they do not experience PTSD. I think that this is going to be very helpful to a lot of people if they are able to determine a person's risk for developing this mental illness. By implementing preventative measures for a person at risk, hopefully the amount of people that live with post-traumatic stress disorder will decrease.

2 comments:

  1. I never knew PTSD could be more common in women. Very fascinating how genetics can narrow down who will receive what possible disease.

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  2. Being able to find the gene linked with PTSD will be extremely helpful in the fight to prevent PTSD throughout the population. Hopefully the money research being put forth with PTSD will lead to a positive outcome.

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