Chromosome 21 workshop.

The report of the 1997 workshop presented overall evidence providing strong support for a susceptibility locus for bipolar disorder at C21q22-23. The 1998 workshop considered the latest results from four groups, and additional studies also have been incorporated into this report. The workshop noted that there was possibly a degree of overlap between the regions implicated by the large samples of the multiplex National Institute of Mental Health pedigrees (affected sib pair analysis: p = 0.0006) and the US/Israeli pedigrees of the New York group (admixture lod = 3.35), in an area a few centimorgans proximal to PFKL. Participants concluded that the evidence implicating this region remains as strong as any, and were optimistic that further investigation would eventually lead to the identification of a susceptibility gene.