Mental Health, Mental Illness | featured news

The biggest study yet into genetics and mental health has come up with a stunning result: The five most common mental illnesses -- autism, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disease, schizophrenia and major depression -- all have a common genetic root.

I am a woman with chronic schizophrenia. I have spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals. I could have ended up living most of my life on a back ward, but things turned out quite differently.

Mental health advocates hope that actress Catherine Zeta-Jones's public acknowledgment of her bipolar disorder will help dispel some of the myths and stigma around mental illness.