Over half this issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry is devoted to articles on the genetics of psychiatric illness. Despite extensive epidemiological evidence for the heritability of many psychiatric illnesses, controversy continues over the reliability of the major genetic findings in this field. Study designs that focus on identifying a single gene cause of disease, while successful for rarer illnesses like cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy, have long been abandoned in psychiatry. Most common illnesses, including psychiatric disorders, are not determined by a single gene variant but rather occur because of complex interaction between multiple genes and environmental factors. Two fundamentally different approaches, illustrated by studies in this issue, can help with this complexity. One approach is to increase the complexity of the disease models to better match the likely reality, such as studies that explicitly model gene-environment or gene-gene interactions. While conceptually straightforward, modeling this additional complexity can require larger samples to maintain adequate power. The second approach is to switch from the study of clinical illness to related traits that are hopefully controlled by simpler genetics. A caveat here is that the genetics of these alternative traits actually may be as complex as standard clinical
Digging More Deeply for Genetic Effects in Psychiatric Illness
Abstract
Over half this issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry is devoted to articles on the genetics of psychiatric illness. Despite extensive epidemiological evidence for the heritability of many psychiatric illnesses, controversy continues over the reliability of the major genetic findings in this field. Study designs that focus on identifying a single gene cause of disease, while successful for rarer illnesses like cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy, have long been abandoned in psychiatry. Most common illnesses, including psychiatric disorders, are not determined by a single gene variant but rather occur because of complex interaction between multiple genes and environmental factors. Two fundamentally different approaches, illustrated by studies in this issue, can help with this complexity. One approach is to increase the complexity of the disease models to better match the likely reality, such as studies that explicitly model gene-environment or gene-gene interactions. While conceptually straightforward, modeling this additional complexity can require larger samples to maintain adequate power. The second approach is to switch from the study of clinical illness to related traits that are hopefully controlled by simpler genetics. A caveat here is that the genetics of these alternative traits actually may be as complex as standard clinical
Loading next page...
If you're having problem loading pages
Try our single-page mode to load one page at a time
Preview Only. This article cannot be rented because we do not currently have permission from the publisher.
/lp/american-psychiatric-publishing-inc-journal/digging-more-deeply-for-genetic-effects-in-psychiatric-illness-NWxoqtk3pv
Welcome to DeepDyve! Rent Premier Research Articles and Save Up to 90%
Preview Only
Digging More Deeply for Genetic Effects in Psychiatric Illness
Brzustowicz, Linda; Freedman, Robert
Follow American Journal of Psychiatry
, Volume 168 (10): 1017
American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc (Journal) – Oct 1, 2011
More Info
More Like This Article
View All dataSource[]=actageo&dataSource[]=aspet&dataSource[]=aaos&dataSource[]=aacc&dataSource[]=aacr&dataSource[]=aea&dataSource[]=aip&dataSource[]=ajnr&dataSource[]=ams&dataSource[]=aps_physical&dataSource[]=appi_book&dataSource[]=appi_journal&dataSource[]=apha&dataSource[]=asip&dataSource[]=asm&dataSource[]=asn&dataSource[]=aspb&dataSource[]=avs&dataSource[]=annual_reviews&dataSource[]=arxiv&dataSource[]=acm&dataSource[]=berghahn&dataSource[]=cabi&dataSource[]=clinical_trials&dataSource[]=dailymed&dataSource[]=degruyter&dataSource[]=du_press&dataSource[]=esa&dataSource[]=eu_press&dataSource[]=elsevier&dataSource[]=emerald&dataSource[]=ejtr&dataSource[]=emea&dataSource[]=epo&dataSource[]=faseb&dataSource[]=gsa&dataSource[]=health_affairs&dataSource[]=hindawi&dataSource[]=imanager&dataSource[]=imedpub&dataSource[]=informa_healthcare&dataSource[]=informs&dataSource[]=iop&dataSource[]=iucr&dataSource[]=iospress&dataSource[]=jbjs&dataSource[]=leftcoast&dataSource[]=lu_press&dataSource[]=mesharpe&dataSource[]=mary_ann_liebert&dataSource[]=medline&dataSource[]=mit_press&dataSource[]=nature&dataSource[]=oxford&dataSource[]=pier_professional&dataSource[]=pnas&dataSource[]=portlandpress&dataSource[]=psyc_articles&dataSource[]=psyc_books&dataSource[]=psyc_critiques&dataSource[]=plos_journal&dataSource[]=pubmed_central&dataSource[]=rsna&dataSource[]=rockefeller&dataSource[]=rcn&dataSource[]=ria&dataSource[]=rsc&dataSource[]=sage&dataSource[]=spie&dataSource[]=springer_journal&dataSource[]=springer&dataSource[]=taylor_francis&dataSource[]=aps&dataSource[]=the_scientist&dataSource[]=uc_press&dataSource[]=uspto_abstract&dataSource[]=wiley&dataSource[]=pct
© 2012 DeepDyve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
