Comorbid Bipolar Disorder and Usher Syndrome

Abstract

To the Editor: Co-occurrence of psychiatric disorder and rare syndromes with known gene loci can facilitate critical pathophysiologic insights and might have important therapeutic implications as well.1 Usher syndrome is the most common type of deaf-blindness. It is a group of genetically distinct disorders phenotypically associated with dual sensory impairments as a result of congenital sensorineural hearing loss and progressive visual impairment from retinitis pigmentosa. Rarely, Usher syndrome may be associated with mental subnormality and infertility. Twenty-three percent of these patients have a psychiatric illness, mainly schizophrenia.