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An article titled "Gene Found For Crippling Neurologic Disorder" posted on http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/366de.htm reports the discovery of a gene, the mutation of which causes early-onset dystonia, a form of dystonia that appears in childhood. Full details appear in the September issue of Nature Genetics. The article contains a fascinating suggestion about stress as a casusal trigger of neurological diseases. A protein involved in the mutation process "has significant similarities to the heat-shock proteins and proteases. Found in virtually all living organisms, the heat-shock proteins/proteases help cells recover from stresses including heat, traumatic injury and chemical poisoning. . . . 'it may help us understand how stress situations bring on a variety of neurological diseases, including this one,' says Breakefield [one of the researchers]. She explains that only 30 percent of those inheriting the ... gene mutation actually develop dystonia and that vulnerability to the disease seems to disappear after age 28. 'If the mutated gene product is set off, there is no stopping it, but if the process does not start by 28, people with the mutation are virtually free from the risk of developing symptoms.'" Phil Tompkins