
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 1, 1994                   TAG: 9411010089
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

DEPRESSION GENE MAY BE LOCATED

The largest study of its kind has found the approximate location of a possible gene for manic-depression, a disorder estimated to affect more than 2 million Americans.

Scientists found evidence that a gene somewhere in a particular portion of chromosome 21 promotes the disease in at least one of the 47 families they studied.

While investigators are reasonably confident that such a gene exists there, nobody can be sure until other research teams confirm the results, researcher Dr. Miron Baron said Monday.

Baron is director of psychogenetics at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, which is part of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

Baron and colleagues at Columbia and in Israel report their findings in the November issue of the journal Nature Genetics. They said their study was the largest yet reported that sought a statistical link between manic-depression and a gene.

Dr. Wade Berrettini of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, who reported evidence in June that a manic-depression gene lies on chromosome 18, agreed that confirming studies will be essential.

Berrettini said he and some other scientists had tried to confirm Baron's result in the families they were studying, but found no evidence for it.

If there is a chromosome 21 gene for manic-depression, it may be a relatively uncommon cause of the disease that would escape detection, Berrettini said.

Manic-depression, also called bipolar disorder, combines episodes of mania - including euphoria or irritability - with bouts of depression. About one in 100 people is thought to have it at some point.

by CNB