Congress Near Deal on Genetic Test Bias Bill

Congress reached an agreement clearing the way for a bill to prohibit discrimination by employers and health insurers on the basis of genetic tests. . . . Some of the tests already exist, like one for breast cancer risk, and new ones are being introduced almost every month. But backers of the legislation say many people are afraid of taking such tests because they fear the results would be used to deny them employment or health insurance.

Home bipolar disorder test causes stirs

Dr. John Kelsoe has spent his career trying to identify the biological roots of bipolar disorder. In December, he announced he had discovered several gene mutations closely tied to the disease, also known as manic depression. Then Kelsoe, a prominent psychiatric geneticist at the University of California, San Diego, did something provocative for the buttoned-down world of academic medical research: He began selling bipolar genetic tests straight to the public over the Internet last month for $399. His company, La Jolla-based Psynomics, joins a legion of startups racing to exploit the boom in research connecting genetic variations to a host of health conditions. More than 1,000 at-home gene tests have burst onto the market in the past few years. The proliferation of these tests troubles many public health officials, medical ethicists and doctors. The tests receive almost no government oversight, even though many of them are being sold as tools for making serious medical decisions. Health experts worry that many of these products are built on thin data and are preying on individuals' deepest anxieties.

Genes and Post-Traumatic Stress

Why is it that when a group of soldiers share a horrific battle experience, some are able to work through it and get on with their lives while others suffer the persistent anxiety, emotional numbness and bomb-blasted nightmares of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? The answer, researchers have long believed, is that an individual's response to trauma — whether in battle, or as result of a natural disaster, a violent crime or some other horror — depends not only on the intensity of that trauma but also on a complex interplay of past experiences and genetic factors. A new paper, published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, provides remarkable support for this explanation and identifies a specific gene that influences susceptibility to PTSD.

Double jeopardy in Alzheimer's families

One parent with Alzheimer's disease is tough enough, but imagine the memory-robbing illness striking both parents - and knowing chances are high you'll get it, too. A study of more than 100 families for the first time gauges the size of that risk. . . . The study, appearing in March's Archives of Neurology, found more than 22 percent of the adult children of 111 couples with Alzheimer's had the disease themselves. Risk grew with age. Among offspring older than 60, more than 30 percent were affected. In those older than 70, nearly 42 percent had the disease.
Prior studies have found a 6 to 13 percent prevalence of the disease in the U.S. population older than 65.