| Sumario: | "Fragile X syndrome is a genetic condition that causes a range of neurodevelopmental problems including learning disabilities and cognitive impairment. Boys with the condition are more likely to be born fully affected by it, while women who are seemingly unaffected carriers have an increased risk of giving birth to an affected child. Recent research indicates that Fragile X syndrome is highly unusual in the world of genetic disorders, in that carriers, who were previously thought to show no symptoms at all, are in fact affected in their own ways: into adulthood, they can develop personality and emotional changes, tremors, and difficulty walking. The title characters in The Carriers, then, are the previous generations--mothers and grandparents--of fully affected Fragile X patients. This book aims to tell the stories of how families are affected by this genetic disorder over generations, as well as the initial science that discovered it and the current science that's teaching us how Fragile X is affecting silent carriers in ways that weren't previously recognized. Understanding psychiatric symptoms in premutation carriers is complicated by the fact that many are caring for children with Fragile X syndrome and fathers with the tremor/ataxia symptom (difficulty walking). This story particularly highlights women, who are often the carriers in question and also the genetic researchers achieving scientific breakthroughs"--
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