7.1 - Basic Genetic Principles and the History of Gene Identification

Summary

Sequencing of the human genome and the demonstration of a substantial heritability for many psychiatric conditions has enabled a new era of molecular psychiatric genetics research. Progress has been made towards goals of identifying ‘risk genes’ and associated biological pathways to establish new drug targets for psychiatric disorders, particularly in the last decade. In addition, genetic advances offer the prospect of informing more personalised treatments and improving diagnosis, classification and prediction. With the prospect of emerging genetic discoveries having real clinical impact comes the responsibility of establishing how best to communicate genetic findings to patients and their families. In the sections in this chapter, we provide an overview of basic genetics and review psychiatric genomic research advances over the last decade and beyond.