Dry-cleaning chemical can increase risk of bipolar disorder: study

A new study has found early exposure to a chemical commonly used in dry-cleaning can increase the risk of developing bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress syndrome.

The study, published in the open access journal Environmental Health, examined the impact of the solvent - known as tetrachloroethylene or PCE - which leached into the water supply from vinyl-lined water pipes used in the Cape Cod area.

PCE and vinyl resin were used to attach liners to the water pipes. The pipes were dried for 48 hours before being shipped for use. It was thought that the PCE would evaporate before the pipes were installed. But that didn’t appear to be the case.

Quantities of PCE seem to have stayed on the liner and ended up leaching into the public water supply, said Ann Aschengrau, a professor and epidemiologist at Boston University School of Public Health who conducted the study.

Aschengrau and a team of researchers did a retrospective cohort study on 1,500 subjects, born between 1969 and 1983 in the Cape Cod area. They were traced through their current address and telephone number, credit bureau records, telephone books and the Internet.

Eight hundred and thirty-one of them were identified as being exposed to the solvent through drinking water either prenatally or in early childhood, Aschengrau said in an interview with the Star.

Is Bipolar Disorder Hereditary? The facts are clear: genetics play a large part in a person’s susceptibility to developing bipolar disorder. Research shows that 75-80% of all bipolar victims have a family member that also suffers with some variety of the disorder. That does not necessarily mean that if you have a family member with bipolar disorder that you have an 80% greater risk of developing the same symptoms; but it does mean that you have an 80% chance of having the trigger that can turn on the disorder within your own brain and body.

Let me explain. The genetic link for bipolar disorder is not like the hereditary factors of other diseases, since bipolar seems to have (in many cases) some sort of environmental trigger, which actually turns on the disease. Should you be lucky enough to avoid these triggers, you could keep the disease at bay in your own life even if you carry the hereditary gene that causes it.

So, what are some of these environmental triggers that have been linked to bipolar disorder? Here are just a few of the most common to watch out for:

Alcohol and drug exposure while in utero

Phychosocial stressors like abuse, abandonment, etc.
Head trauma
Certain illnesses
Other stresses as a child ( a growing brain with the bipolar gene may react to certain stresses much more severely than a growing brain void of the bipolar gene).