Thursday, June 17, 2010

Suicide and genetics

Nearly a million people killed themselves in 2000 and scientists estimate that 1.5 million will in 2020. It is thought that about 40% of the variation in people's suicidal behaviour could have a genetic basis and a team of Spanish researchers based at Mount Sinai Hospital and Columbia University in New York analysed 840 different variations found in 312 genes which affect the brain. They found that three variations in three different genes allowed them to correctly classify 69% of the sample of psychiatric patients they studied by whether they had previously tried to kill themselves or not.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100615105249.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

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