Children born to fathers older than 30 are more likely to develop bipolar disorder, according to researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The findings, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, verify that children of older fathers are at higher risk of developing mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, autism and schizophrenia. And the risk factor continues to increase as fathers age, rising to 37 percent when a man is 55 years old. One explanation is that sperm quality degrades as a man ages, increasing the possibility of genetic mutations that lead to bipolar disorder.

Despite years of speculation that a man’s age may be linked to mental illness in his offspring, this is the first time a scientific study has been conducted to verify the assumption. The findings are another step toward understanding the causes and creating treatments for an illness that affects as many as 3 percent of adults worldwide. On another front, last month an international research team linked two genetic variants to an increased risk for the disease, adding to the pool of knowledge about the condition that often runs in families.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Bipolar Disorder, Family, In The News, New Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.