proofonline.org » Asperger’s http://www.proofonline.org/blog mental health blog Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:53:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Novel Theory of Mental Disorders Pits Parents’ Genes in Conflict http://www.proofonline.org/blog/2009/08/24/novel-theory-of-mental-disorders/ http://www.proofonline.org/blog/2009/08/24/novel-theory-of-mental-disorders/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:58:49 +0000 Douglas Faneuil http://www.proofonline.org/blog/?p=148 Quote At a time when the search for the genetic glitches behind brain disorders has become mired in uncertain and complex findings, the new idea provides psychiatry with perhaps its grandest working theory since Freud, and one that is grounded in work at the forefront of science. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression.

In short: autism and schizophrenia represent opposite ends of a spectrum that includes most, if not all, psychiatric and developmental brain disorders. The theory has no use for psychiatry’s many separate categories for disorders, and it would give genetic findings an entirely new dimension.

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