Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T18:36:20.226Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Coping with genetic burden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Extract

An increasing number of neurodegenerative diseases have been defined at the molecular level in recent years, making it possible to determine precisely the genotype before the onset of symptoms. Pre-symptomatic testing programs are available for Huntington disease (HD), hereditary cerebral haemorrhage with amyloid-Dutch type, inherited cerebral ataxia, myotonic dystrophy, and Alzheimer disease. Although treatment options such as gene therapy have no widespread application until now, and much has to be developed, the use of predictive DNA-diagnostics has become a clinical application for a number of hereditary diseases. For psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorders, there are indications for localisation of the genetic factors, but clinical use of genetics is still far from reality. Yet, the increasing knowledge about genetics will have far-reaching influence in most fields of modern medicine and in health care provisions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scandinavian College of Neuropsychopharmacology 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature

1.Health Council of the Netherlands: Committee on DNA-diagnostics. The Hague, 1998.Google Scholar
2.Tibben, A, Timman, RT, Bannink, EC, Duivenvoorden, HJ. 3-Year follow-up after pre-symptomatic testing for Huntington disease in tested individuals and partners. Health Psychol 1997;16;2035.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Codori, AM, Brandt, J. Psychological costs and benefits of predictive testing for Huntington's disease. Am J med Genet 1994; 54, 174–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Wiggins, S, Whyte, P, Huggins, M, et al.The psychological consequences of predictive testing for Huntington's disease. Canadian Collaborative Study of Predictive Testing. N Engl J Med 1992; 327, 1401–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Maguire, CP, Kirby, M, Coen, R. Family member's attitudes toward telling the patient with Alzheimer's disease their diagnosis. Br med J 1996;313;529–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.Tibben, A, Stevens, M, Wert, GMWR de, et al.Preparing for pre-symptomatic DNA-testing for early onset Alzheimer disease/ cerebral haemorrhage and hereditary Pick disease. J med Genet 1997; 34:6372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Tibben, A, Roos, RAC, Niermeijer, MF. Psychological consequences of pre-symptomatic testing for Huntington's disease. Lancet 1997; 349: 809CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Lannfelt, L, Axelman, K, Lilius, L, Basun, H. Genetic counseling in a Swedish Alzheimer family with amyloid precursor protein mutation. Am J hum Genet 1995;56;332–5.Google Scholar
9.Dudok de Wit, AC, Meijers-Heijboer, EJ, Tibben, A, et al.Effect on a Dutch family of predictive DNA-testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Lancet 1994; 344: 197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar