Auto Pioneer's Suicide Inspires Research on Bipolar Disorder

One morning five years ago, the automotive industry was shocked by the suicide of one of its brightest stars, Heinz Prechter. He killed himself despite seeming to have it all: a successful company he had built from nothing after coming to America, a beautiful and intelligent wife, growing children, and dozens of friends.

But in fact, Mr. Prechter had something else, which almost no one else knew about: the mental illness called bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression. His moods would swing from extreme happiness and boundless energy to deep, dark, depressed lows. During one of those lows, he took his life.

In other words, bipolar disorder killed Heinz Prechter.

Today, the tragedy of his death is driving scientists at the University of Michigan Health System and elsewhere to perform research that should give hope to the 5.7 million Americans who have bipolar disorder, and to their loved ones.

Because bipolar disorder runs in families, the scientists are focusing on studying genes. By collecting DNA samples from thousands of people with the disease, and comparing it with DNA from people who don't, they hope to find out what puts someone at risk of bipolar disorder, and how to improve diagnosis and treatment.

Hundreds of bipolar patients and healthy comparison volunteers are still needed in order to make those discoveries possible. Each volunteer gives a small blood sample and agrees to be interviewed each year.

The scientists are getting help from Mr. Prechter's wife, Waltraud, known as Wally. She has given substantial money and effort to build the DNA "bank," called the Prechter Genetic Repository, and to fund research projects and raise awareness.

Out of her family's sorrow, she hopes, will come real advances in identifying the combination of genes that make someone susceptible to the disease that took her husband. And with those discoveries, she hopes, the stigma and secrecy that surround bipolar disorder will evaporate.

"I had lived with Heinz for 24 years, and experienced what he went through. I had an idea what other people with bipolar disorder are going through, because if you're not in those shoes, you don't know," she says. "And I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to change the way we look at that illness and help change the way we treat people who have it, bring it to the forefront and help fix it, once and for all."

One of the leaders of the bipolar research effort is Melvin McInnis, M.D., a U-M psychiatrist and geneticist, and member of the U-M Depression Center. He holds the Nancy Upjohn Woodworth Professor of Bipolar Disorder and Depression chair at the U-M Medical School.

"The genetics of bipolar disorder is something we've known about for almost a hundred years, because in essence it appears to run in families. But what we really do not know is what exactly is inherited, how it is inherited, and the mode of transmission between generations," he says.