Believe: Living with Dup15q Syndrome Documentary

Believe is a glimpse into the lives of four families, whose children have been diagnosed with dup15q syndrome and the different ways this little known syndrome affects each child.

What is dup15q?

Dup 15q syndrome is a clinically identifiable syndrome which results from duplications of chromosome 15q11.2-13.1.

Idic(15) is one type of dup15q syndrome. People with idic(15) are born with 47 chromosomes in each of their body cells, instead of the usual 46 found in most people. In people with idic(15), the extra chromosome is made up of a piece of chromosome number 15 which has been duplicated end-to-end like a mirror image.

Individuals with chromosome 15q11.2-13.1 duplication syndrome are born to parents of every socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic background. There is no known link between dup15q syndrome and environmental or lifestyle factors. In other words, there is nothing that parents did before or during pregnancy to cause their child to be born with the chromosome 15q duplication.