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Psychiatric genetics
 
 
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Psychiatric genetics, a subfield of behavioral neurogenetics, studies the role of genetics in psychological conditions such as alcoholism
Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
, schizophrenia
Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia , from the Ancient Greek Root schizein and phren, phren- is a psychiatry diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality....
, bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a Classification of mental disorders that describes a category of mood disorders, or mood swings, defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania....
, and autism
Autism

Autism is a Neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior....
. The basic principle behind psychiatric genetics is that genetic polymorphisms
Polymorphism (biology)

Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species ? in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph....
, as indicated by linkage to e.g. a single nucleotide polymorphism
Single nucleotide polymorphism

A single-nucleotide polymorphism is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide — adenine, thymine, cytosine, or guanine — in the genome differs between members of a species ....
 (SNP), are part of the etiology
Etiology

Etiology is the study of Causality. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek , aitiologia, "giving a reason for" .The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psy...
 of psychiatric disorders
Mental illness

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture....
.

The goal of psychiatric genetics is to better understand the etiology of psychiatric disorders, to use that knowledge to improve treatment methods, and possibly also to develop personalized treatments based on genetic profiles (see pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetics variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity....
).






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Psychiatric genetics, a subfield of behavioral neurogenetics, studies the role of genetics in psychological conditions such as alcoholism
Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
, schizophrenia
Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia , from the Ancient Greek Root schizein and phren, phren- is a psychiatry diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality....
, bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a Classification of mental disorders that describes a category of mood disorders, or mood swings, defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania....
, and autism
Autism

Autism is a Neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior....
. The basic principle behind psychiatric genetics is that genetic polymorphisms
Polymorphism (biology)

Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species ? in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph....
, as indicated by linkage to e.g. a single nucleotide polymorphism
Single nucleotide polymorphism

A single-nucleotide polymorphism is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide — adenine, thymine, cytosine, or guanine — in the genome differs between members of a species ....
 (SNP), are part of the etiology
Etiology

Etiology is the study of Causality. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek , aitiologia, "giving a reason for" .The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psy...
 of psychiatric disorders
Mental illness

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern that occurs in an individual and is thought to cause distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture....
.

The goal of psychiatric genetics is to better understand the etiology of psychiatric disorders, to use that knowledge to improve treatment methods, and possibly also to develop personalized treatments based on genetic profiles (see pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetics variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity....
). In other words, the goal is to transform parts of psychiatry into a neuroscience
Neuroscience

Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system. The Society for Neuroscience was founded in 1969, but the study of the brain started a long time ago....
-based discipline.

Linkage
Genetic linkage

Genetic linkage occurs when particular genetic Locus or alleles for genes are inherited jointly. Genetic loci on the same chromosome are physically connected and tend to stay together during meiosis, and are thus genetically linked....
, association
Genetic association

Studies concerning genetic association aim to test whether single-locus alleles or genotype frequencies are different between 2 groups . Genetic association studies are based on the principle that genotypes can be compared "directly", i.e....
, and microarray
DNA microarray

A DNA microarray is a multiplex technology used in molecular biology and in medicine. It consists of an arrayed series of thousands of microscopic spots of DNA oligonucleotides, called features, each containing picoMole s of a specific DNA sequence....
 studies generate raw material for findings in psychiatric genetics. Copy number variants have also been associated with psychiatric conditions.

Most psychiatric disorders are highly heritable
Heredity

Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism....
; the estimated heritability for bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a Classification of mental disorders that describes a category of mood disorders, or mood swings, defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood clinically referred to as mania or, if milder, hypomania....
, schizophrenia
Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia , from the Ancient Greek Root schizein and phren, phren- is a psychiatry diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality....
, and autism
Autism

Autism is a Neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior....
 (80% or higher) is much higher than that of diseases like breast cancer
Breast cancer

Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the Cell of the breast in women and men. Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer and the fifth most common cause of cancer death....
 and Parkinson disease. However, linkage analysis and genome-wide association studies have found few reproducible risk factors
Risk factors

A risk factor is a concept in finance theory such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model, Arbitrage Pricing Theory and other theories that use pricing kernels....
.

Several genetic risk factors have been found with the endophenotype
Endophenotype

Endophenotype is a psychiatric concept and a special kind of biomarker. The purpose of the concept is to divide behavioural symptoms into more stable phenotypes with a clear Genetics connection....
s of psychiatric disorders, rather than with the diagnoses themselves. That is, the risk factors are associated with particular symptoms, not with the overall diagnosis.

See also

  • Genes, Brain and Behavior
    Genes, Brain and Behavior

    Genes, Brain and Behavior is a scientific journal published by the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society in collaboration with Blackwell Publishing....
     (journal)
  • International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society
    International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society

    The International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society was founded in 1996 as the European Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society. The name and scope of the society were changed to International at the first meeting of the society in Orl?ans, in 1997....
     (IBANGS)
  • Psychiatric Genetics
    Psychiatric genetics

    Psychiatric genetics, a subfield of behavioral neurogenetics, studies the role of genetics in psychological conditions such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism....
     (journal)


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