The world of genetics has come to psychiatry in the past five years.  The Human Genome Project has generated millions of variations, and busy scientists all over the world are meticulously cataloguing them.  No other disease has generated more enthusiasm in psychiatry than schizophrenia.  The fabled goal to find the cause has thus far been unattainable.  What was hoped to be a single gene defect, or even a few variations working together, has evaporated;  in reality, schizophrenia is not one disease but dozens of different brain dysfunctions:  Each caused by a different misfiring, miswiring, or inactivity among many different brain structures.  There is no typical pattern.

I have been fascinated by this psychiatric Holy Grail–genetics!–for many years, and I remained rapt as studies roll out of high impact-factor journals like Nature, Molecular Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, Lancet, and so on.

Here is a taste of what they are saying.

2009schzSNP.pdf

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