In an investigation of cation transport in bipolar affective disorder, we have measmed parameters related to Na,K-ATPase, the enzyme that carties out active transport of sodium and potassium, in lymphoblastoid cells cultured from patients with bipolar affective disorder, age-matched nonaffected family relatives, and unrelated controls. Patients and their relafives were from well.characterized pedigrees of Old Order Amish. The use of iymphoblastoid cell lines largely eliminated possible effects of factom such as clinical state or recent drug treatment. Patients had lower ion mmsport per cell (271:1:40 pmol/10 e cells-min for patients vs 490 + 107 for related controls and 396 + 79 for unrelated controls; pc 0.001 by Kmskal-Wallis test) and per mmsport enzyme site (reduced by about 35% in patients, pc 0.02) than did related or unrelated controls. These data suggest that abnormally regulated ion transport may be associated with bipolar affective disorder independently of clinical state.

The effect of prenatal exposure to neuroleptic drugs on height and weight from birth to 7 years was examined in children of psychiatrically normal parents and of parents with a history of psychiatric treatment, using data from the Collaborative Perinatal Project of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases, Communicative Disorders, and Stroke. Analysis of covariance was used to control for potential confounding factors. We found that prenatal exposure to dopamine receptor-blocking neuroleptic drugs was associated with increased height in one or more of our groups at 4 months, 1 year, and 7 years and less consistently with increased weight. Seven-year-old children who had been exposed to these drugs for more than 2 months during gestation were approximately 3 cm taller than unexposed controls (p less than 0.05). Prenatal exposure to dopamine-depleting agents was associated with decreased height at 4 months but not later. Possible mechanisms for these effects, including a permanent decrease in the number of brain dopamine receptors and effects on various hormones, are discussed.