Gene-Environment Interactions in Psychiatry

Approximately one in every three people will, at some point in life, be diagnosed with an illness of the brain. The costs associated with these diseases is far larger than any other group of disorders, and identifying their aetiology is therefore of paramount importance for developing more efficient treatment options. There is widespread agreement that genetic and environmental factors interact with each other in this. With the ascent of ever better (and cheaper) ways to identify changes in the genome, there has been an enormous increase in genetic research as well as in gene-environment interaction studies in psychiatry. Such studies typically require a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together geneticists, epidemiologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and other experts. Gene-Environment Interactions in Psychiatry is subdivided into two parts. The first describes the basic aspects of gene-environment studies, such as basic genetics, principles of animals modelling, and the basic processes of how environmental factors affect brain and behavior. Part two describes the most important psychiatric disorders in detail. Each chapter has a similar structure and includes a general description of the disorder, followed by an analysis of the role of genes and how they are affected by environmental factors. Each chapter ends with a description of the most relevant animal models, again focusing on gene-environment interactions. The book concludes with a critical evaluation of the current research and an outlook for the (possible) future, offering a vignette into the fascinating world of nature, nurture, and neuroscience. Written to provide in-depth basic knowledge on gene-environment interactions for graduate students, postgraduate students, clinicians, and scientistsIncludes descriptions of the major psychiatric disordersAlso includes detailed descriptions of animal models and basic genetic informationWell-illustrated color figures to explain complex features in a simple way