Genetic Approaches to Mental Disorders

Edited by Elliot S. Gershon, M.D., and C. Robert Cloninger, M.D.
American Psychopathological Association

1994
394 Pages
Editorial Reviews

ISBN 978-0-88048-951-5
Item #8951

List Price: $36.95
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Description
Contents
Editorial Reviews
About the Authors

Since the 1940s, the American Psychopathological Association has been a driving force in psychiatric genetic research. Having studied the Kallmann and Kety Hoch Award papers, many researchers have attempted to advance psychiatric genetic knowledge from epidemiological findings to biological findings.

Genetic Approaches to Mental Disorders provides the latest information on the relationship between genetics and mental disorders. Divided into four sections, this book presents analysis of the genetic data, linkage mapping and association, debate over genetic Kraepelinian dichotomy, and mapping and association results in psychiatry.

Analysis of Genetic Data
. Values, power, and pitfalls in the linkage analysis of psychiatric disorders. Problems of replicating linkage claims in psychiatry. Mapping genes for psychiatric disorders. Choice of genetic models for linkage analysis of psychiatric traits. Genetic heterogeneity and other complex models: a problem for linkage detection. Sensitivity of linkage analysis to changes in diagnosis: what happens to lod scores when one person changes diagnostic status. Genetic analysis.
Linkage Mapping and Association
. Linkage mapping using short tandem repeat polymorphisms. An approach to identifying genes that predispose to schizophrenia. The genetic linkage map.
Debate: Is There a Genetic Kraepelinian Dichotomy for Manic-Depressive Illness and Schizophrenia?
Pro: tests of alternative models of the relationship of schizophrenic and affective psychoses. Con: the demise of the Kraepelinian binary system as a prelude to genetic advance. Discussion of debate: is there a genetic Kraepelinian dichotomy for manic-depressive illness and schizophrenia?
Mapping and Association Results in Psychiatry.
Detecting discrete genes for susceptibility to manic-depressive illness or schizophrenia. Genetic linkage analysis and clinical approaches to the resolution of heterogeneity in the schizophrenias. Is there a gene for manic-depressive illness on the long arm of the X chromosome? A systematic search for vulnerability genes in bipolar disorder. The Iowa linkage study of panic disorder. Is there a single locus contributing to alcohol vulnerability? D2dopamine receptor genotype and linkage disequilibrium and dopamine function in Finnish, American Indian, and U. S. Caucasian patients. Linkage study of panic disorder: a preliminary report. Identification of clinical phenotypes for genetic research on mental disorders. Index.

Eliott S. Gershon, M. D., is Chief of the Clinical Neurogenetics Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

C. Robert Clonninger, M.D., is the Wallace Renard Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.

My first compliment to the editors is that they have selected some papers that are still worth reading. . . Perhaps the best endorsement I can offer is to report that I have used this book. At least one grant application, a few papers, and several discussions with colleagues have benefited from what I found in this book. I still keep it near my desk for quick reference, and I notice when it has been borrowed but not returned.—Frances J. McMahon, M.D., General Hospital Psychiatry

Any professional researcher or clinician concerned about the genetic contribution to mental disorders would be well-advised to keep this authoritative compendium at hand.—Jonathan Piel, Editor, Scientific American

This is an up-to-date book on the state of the knowledge and the controversies in psychiatric genetics.—Doody's Health Sciences Book Review Journal

Dr. Gershon has assembled a distinguished group of experts who in an articulate way both convey much of the field while articulating some of the major disputes. This book will be valuable for all interested in psychiatric research and mental illness.—Herbert Pardes, M. D., Vice President for Health Sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY