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Chapter 1 - Contribution of genetic epidemiology to our understanding of psychiatric disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2012

By
Kathleen Ries Merikangas  and
Anibal Cravchik
Edited by
John I. Nurnberger, Jr  and
Wade Berrettini
John I. Nurnberger, Jr
Affiliation:
Indiana University School of Medicine
Wade Berrettini
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
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Summary

Genetic epidemiology focuses on how genetic factors and their interactions with other risk factors increase vulnerability to, or protection against, disease. The investigations in genetic epidemiology are typically based on a combination of study designs including family, twin, and adoption studies. Migrant studies are perhaps the most powerful study design to identify environmental and cultural risk factors. This chapter presents a summary of relative risks derived from controlled family studies of selected psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders and mood disorders. Two factors which contribute to the complexity of the patterns of inheritance of psychiatric disorders are lack of validity of classification of psychiatric disorders and complexity of the pathways from genotypes to psychiatric phenotypes. The chapter reviews the role of the tools of epidemiology in ongoing and future studies designed to identify genes underlying mental disorders.
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Chapter
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Principles of Psychiatric Genetics , pp. 1 - 12
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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