The future of psychiatric genetics
The articles in this section of Current Psychiatry Reports show the great strides that have been made in understanding the genetics of mental disorders. After more than a century of family, twin, and adoption studies, we can now state with certainty that genes influence the etiology of most mental disorders. Genetic epidemiologic research also shows that the inheritance of most psychiatric disorders is complex. Although rare single gene variants of psychiatric disorders may exist, most cases of psychiatric illness can be attributed to the joint actions of many genes along with environmental risk factors [1]. Despite the strong evidence implicating genes as causes of psychiatric illness, complex inheritance has stymied efforts to find susceptibility genes for specific disorders. Although current molecular genetic technologies have made gene finding routine for many medical conditions, the papers in this section show that findings for psychiatric illness have been only suggestive and sometimes contradictory. These difficulties have led to a new phase of molecular genetic research in psychiatry. This new work promises to find genes and thereby open up new vistas for research and treatment.