sheds light on just how often, and why, psychiatric and physical diseases go hand in hand.
surprising finding here is not that psychiatric disorders and medical disorders are linked, but rather, how much they are linked,”
“At the genetic level, we found that there is so much overlap they are really not two different classes of diseases at all.” — Andrew Grotzinger
Grotzinger’s previous research has shown that people with one psychiatric disorder often have many (41% meet the criteria of four or more), …
Physical disorders also come in groups, with 38% of the global population having two or more chronic conditions.
… psychiatric disorders increasing risk of some physical disorders by nearly 400%.
People with depression, studies show, are 1.5 times as likely as those without depression to develop heart disease.
… rarely see someone with just one condition walk into a room,” said first author Jeremy Lawrence, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology.
“If we can better understand the cross-talk between these conditions, we can do a better job helping the whole patient.”
ADHD, it had more in common, genetically, with physical diseases than with other psychiatric diseases.
Some specific diseases tended to go together.
… schizophrenia tended to pair with gastrointestinal problems;
bipolar disorder tended to pair with genitourinary disorders and sleep problems.
Depression and anxiety tended to pair with cardiovascular disease.
… chicken or the egg?
… mental illness, like depression, could lead to behaviors—like eating poorly or leading a sedentary lifestyle—that precipitate poor physical health.
… cancer diagnosis, physical illness could boost risk of mental illnesses like depression.
… common chunk of DNA may independently boost risk of both a physical illness and a mental illness.
GLP-1 agonists—originally developed for diabetes, then prescribed for weight loss, and now showing promise for use in substance abuse disorders …
… how drugs meant for physical disease are making their way into the mental health realm.
Genetics could also be used to predict which groupings of diseases across the mental and physical spectrums a person is susceptible to so they can intervene early.
… research shows that addressing mental illness can go a long way in improving overall health, said Grotzinger. It could also help break down the silos between psychology and general medicine.
“… diagnose physical illness, but in many ways, we don’t have that for psychiatric disorders, so some have viewed them as more esoteric and less tangible,”
“Psychiatric disorders are just as real as any medical disease. Our findings help make that argument.”