It has been observed that manic depression, also known as bipolar disorder, tends to run in families.  Scientific research is still being worked on to determine exactly how genetics plays a part in this discovery. 

Bipolar disorder is most recognized by drastic mood changes among the individual.  We all have mood changes at times precipitated by our good days and bad days, but a person with bipolar disorder, or manic depression, has extreme shifts in mood that are beyond the realm of just a “bad mood” or a “good mood”.  Their shifts are so extremely definable that it causes one to speculate that it is out of the ordinary.  Their dramatic mood swings are of the ultimate “highs” and the deepest of the “lows”. 

A biochemical imbalance involving brain neurotransmitters and hormones seem to be largely responsible for developing a mood disorder.  Because this involves many different genes, otherwise known as polygenic, it is difficult to say just where this imbalance will lead the person with a mood disorder.  Almost 90% of people diagnosed with manic depression or bipolar disease has a relative with some type of mood disorder. 

Gene linkage techniques, published in a paper in 2003 by researchers, indicates a recognizable defect in a gene known as GRK3 as being responsible for one tenth of the instances of bipolar disorder.  A kinase enzyme, known as G protein receptor kinase 3, plays a part in dopamine metabolism. 

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