Genetics and Alzheimer's - To know or not to know?

January 30, 2010 |12:06 | Genetics By : Team X

Last year, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine asked whether the children of Alzheimer's patients should find out whether they were genetically predisposed to the same fate. Researchers concluded that people who learned their genetic status could take the information in stride as long as they received appropriate counseling.

The conclusion was based on an analysis of 162 volunteers who took a blood test to see whether they had the e4 variant of the apolipoprotein E gene, which has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Some volunteers got their results; others didn't. But members of both groups were equally likely to display signs of anxiety or depression.

Two researchers from New York University had their doubts. In a letter published in this week's issue of the journal, they point out that people who got their results should have been compared with people who were never tested at all. After all, everyone who took the blood test had time to think about the possibility that they had bad genes, so anxiety and depression could have been high is both groups.

Instead, they compared the mental health scores of people who got test results with the baseline scores of all volunteers. In this analysis, there were "significant increases in depression" among those who got test results
The study's original authors concede that their critics "raise an interesting point," but they defended their initial approach.

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