BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- People who find out that they are at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease through genetic testing will suffer no psychological harm but, instead handle bad news pretty well, says a new study.

    The study is one of the first major to closely examine the emotional repercussions of learning about risk for a deadly disease with no cure or prevention. It challenges the assumptions that people will be devastated by a positive test result.  

    "There was a virtual certainty among many, many people that you would do harm," said Dr. Robert Green, lead author of the study and a professor at Boston University School of Medicine. 

    "What seems to happen is there are some people who benefit from knowing more information -- information seekers, if you will -- and they like to know as much as they can and they feel better, even if the information isn't always good news," Dr Green said.

    The exact cause of Alzheimer's is not known, but scientists believe heredity plays a role. People with a certain gene — known as APoE4 — are believed to be three to 15 times more likely to develop the illness than other people, depending on how many copies of the gene they have. It is not, however, a sure sign someone will get the disease.

    Green and colleagues carefully screened people who were children of people with Alzheimer's disease, excluding people with signs of cognitive problems or depression. The 162 participants, on average in their early 50s, received a 90-minute education session, had their blood drawn and were randomly split into two groups: two-thirds received genetic results and the rest received risk information due to gender and age.

    The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    (Agencies)