Stress, Environment, Genetic Proclivity, Brain Chemistry Combine In Mental Illness

Genes and Environment Combine To Bring On Mental Illness by Jenny Marder.  January 23, 2013.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Schizophrenia Center have shown, using mice as a model, that stress during adolescence influences the function of a gene known to increase at greater risk  for developing several types of mental illness.  Stress plus the mutated gene DISC1 was shown to produce depression and vulnerability to mental illness beyond adolescence to adulthood.  The research team also found a relationship in the "mentally ill" mice between elevated cortisol and low levels of dopamine.  Interestingly, the team found that RU486, the so-called abortion pill, blocks the effects of the cortisol and prevents the drop in dopamine.