Bipolar disorder is a brain related illness which can cause a person to have dramatic shifts in their behavior. It can affect an individuals mood, energy, and overall behavioral patterns to the point where it interferes with a persons health and happiness. It can affect personal relationships, jobs, social performance, and can even cause people to have suicidal tendencies. This disorder can be highly problematic and its causes are not completely known. Scientists cannot agree on a single cause of this disorder, but a new study has shown that children who have older fathers actually face a higher risk of having Bipolar disorder.
The study which has concluded older men father children who have a higher chance of suffering from Bipolar disorder is one of the largest of its kind. Previous studies have found a link between older fathers and the onset of both autism and schizophrenia but now is also being attributed to older fathers. The theory is that an older mans sperm is more likely to have mutations which can ultimately cause these disorders. The Danish study which has provided this link studied more than 80,000 people with a number of those having bipolar disorder. They found that children with fathers who were over forty were more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder. That being said, the risks for fathering a child with Bipolar disorder are quite minimal when the man is forty, but it does increase with age. Children who had fathers over the age of 55 were 37% more likely to develop Bipolar disorder than those that had fathers who were in their 20&undefined;s. The age of the mothers were also investigated and seemed to have no factor in the onset of this disorder.
The study does note that although a child may be more at risk to develop certain disorders when their father is older, the chances that he or she will actually develop Bipolar disorder is slim. More studies are now being done on Bipolar disorder and other brain related disorders to determine if other biological factors have an impact on their development.
