Posted by Squiggles on May 11, 2007, at 17:03:18
In reply to Re: genetic basis for mental illness, posted by Johann on May 11, 2007, at 16:54:09
I can imagine a cyclicity of mood actually belonging to seasonal changes, and evolving into something else. To say that something has an evolutionary advantage in the Darwinian sense, is sooo hard to prove. I am not sure that everything that changes in an organism over time, does so in an intelligent, adaptive manner-- it may actually be a response to an environmental threat at time X, but not at time P.
But, to look for statistical clusters at Chromosome 11 for BP for example, and compare the Amish populations in Pennsylvania to Java ones, and find a 98% correlation in one versus 10% in another, may provide some certainty regarding the heredity of mental illness.
But how do they look at genes anyway? Sorry, I am out of my depth, and you don't have to reply. I can do my own research i suppose.
S
> A cyclicity of mood may have been adaptive evolutionarily, but not BPD, which by defintion impairs effective functioning.
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> > Exactly. Bipolar disorder may have been a highly advantagious disposition.
> >
> > Cyclic levels of energy and motivation may have timed themselves well with cyclic demands for food, transportation, battle performance, who knows.
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> > Linkadge
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poster:Squiggles
thread:757534
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070509/msgs/757875.html