Conference paper

COMORBIDITIES AND PSYCHOTIC ILLNESS. Part 1: Philosophy and clinical consequences

Mark Agius ; Clare College Cambridge, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK ; South Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust, UK ; Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Francesca Falzon Aquilina ; Mater Dei Hospital & Mount Carmel Hospital, Malta

Abstract

This article aims at addressing the implications of defining ‘comorbidity’ within the field of psychiatry. We have looked at the
standard definition of comorbidity and then discussed whether this definition can be applied to comorbidities in psychiatry. While
comorbidities in physical illness are clearly the coexistence of two independent illnesses, Comorbidities in Mental illness are the
result of the polygenic nature of mental illnesses, especially in psychotic illness whether schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. As a
consequence, often the comorbidities of psychiatric illness are caused by two conditions which have in common the presence of
particular single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps), which regulate the metabolism of neurotransmitters or the presence of
neurotrophic factors . Thus inevitably, many such comorbidities are inextricably linked. We discuss the consequences of this form of
comorbidity for the description, classification, and risk profile of mental illness.

Keywords

comorbidity; psychiatric illness; single nucleotide polimorphisms; neurotrophic factors

Hrčak ID:

265726

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/265726

Publication date:

5.11.2014.

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