E-Book Overview
Psychiatric Genetics provides the reader with a complete view of the methodological problems encountered in psychiatry genetics and proposes solutions to commonly occurring questions. The best European and American specialists have given a thorough review on the advantages and disadvantages of genetic epidemiological methods, the way to choose a genetic marker or a clinical interview and how to ascertain patients, unaffected relatives and controls and what should be the criteria to include a case or a control. New phenotypic methods are described focusing on candidate symptom and endophenotype approaches. Examples coming from cognitive neurosciences, biochemistry, electrophysiology and brain imaging techniques are reviewed. This book will serve as an essential handbook for psychiatrists, psychologists, and geneticists involved in the genetics of psychiatric disorders.
E-Book Content
M E T H O D S I N M O L E C U L A R M E D I C I N E TM
Psychiatric Genetics Methods and Reviews Edited by
Marion Leboyer, MD, PhD Frank Bellivier, MD, PhD
Humana Press
Psychiatric Genetics
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1 Psychiatric Genetics Overview on Achievements, Problems, Perspectives Wolfgang Maier
1. The Progress of Psychiatric Genetics Psychiatric genetics is a relatively new term for an old research question: “Are behavioral and psychological conditions and deviations inherited?” The systematic empirical inquiries in this field started in the late nineteenth century with the work of F. Galton and his monograph Talent and Character, which was motivated by Darwin’s theory and the concept of degeneration. During the twentieth century, the methodological standard of the field was improved by the development of epidemiological, biometrical, and clinical research tools. This was the precondition to perform valid family, twin, and adoption studies. These meth