Genetics of Psychiatric Disorders

Dear Colleagues,

Psychiatric disorders are the most puzzling illnesses in medicine and are associated with considerable morbidity and increased rates of mortality worldwide due to suicide and ill health (e.g., 10- to 15-year reduction in life expectancy for schizophrenia) and cost (due to health care, disability, and lost income). The human impact of a severe mental illness on the lives of the people afflicted and their families and communities is profound.

Despite highly variable clinical features and manifestations, most psychiatric disorders have demonstrated high heritability from the twin and family studies, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and autism, which have shown 60% or higher heritability. However, earlier-stage molecular genetic studies of psychiatric disorders were unable to uncover the significant genetic contribution based on small number of families or case-control cohorts.

New technologies and accesses to large databases and biospecimens have fundamentally changed how researchers investigate the genetic roots of psychiatric disorders. There has been remarkable progress in the past decade in elucidating the genetic underpinnings of psychiatric disorders with numerous significant findings. The evidence is now overwhelming that psychiatric disorders have a polygenic basis—that many genetic loci, mostly with small effect sizes, contribute to the disease risk.

In this Special Issue, we would like to invite reviews, perspectives, and research papers that will highlight the most recent and significant advances, as well as indicate the new research frontiers in this field. Particularly, we would like to encourage genetic studies with different designs and approaches, with larger sample sizes or new meta-analyses or integrative multiomics analyses to elucidate the gene pathways or brain networks involved in psychiatric disorders. We would also like to encourage genetic studies from more diverse human populations, as well as highly relevant functional genomics and well-represented animal models.

Prof. Dr. Bryan Mowry
Prof. Lan Xiong
Guest Editors

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