Mood Genes [antikvár]

PrologueTo lighten the affliction of insanity by all human means is not to restore the greatest of the divine gifts; and those who devote themselves to the task do not pretend that it is. . . . Nevertheless, reader, if you can do a little in any good directiondo it. It will be much, some day.Charles Dickens (1852)Every aspect of human behavior, from the conventional to the bizarre, reflects both personal experiences and inherited incUna-tions. Until recendy, we mainly paid attention to the experiential component because its effects, being so obvious, seemed far more important.But this is changing as scientists have learned to go beyond vaguely defined "inherited incHnations" to their very specific and tangible underpinningsthe genes themselves. Since the discovery of DNA, a powerful technology has been developed to scrutinize exact differences in the genes of individual people and to relate them to many attributes, such as vulnerabiUties to various diseases. Now this same approach is being appHed to hunt for DNA variations that play a role in "the afiliction[s] of insanity"afflictions that once seemed so heavily influenced by Hfe experiences that genetic studies didn't seem very worthwhile.Of these affUctions, one that is attracting particular attention is manic-depressive illness. Characterized by episodic and disruptive mood fluctuations, this fllness is especially important because it affects so many peopleabout one in a hundred of us in its most flagrant form, and possibly several times as many of us in