Psychiatric Genetics In Sudan: Chances and Opportunities

Abstract

Psychiatric diseases are group of diseases which are caused by multi-genetics and multi-factorial pattern of inheritance. Studying the genetics of these diseases per se is a real challenge. Studying psychiatric diseases in Sudan is a difficult task putting in mind the complex social contexts beside other factors. These factors may include wars, poverty, famines and illiteracy which could be considered as a risk factor for psychiatric illnesses. None the less, high consanguinity marriages, social stigma, the big influence of traditional healers plus the above-mentioned factors may be considered as obstacles for researches in general and psychiatric genetics researches especially. However, Sudan is a country of variable ethnicity and population admixture with a history of migration. On another note, the location of Sudan in an area that is considered to be the origin of the human race. These features create genetically variable population. Hence, from a genetic point of view, such high genetic variability in Sudan give a great opportunity to find new variants associated with psychiatric diseases. This will contribute to the understanding of psychiatric genetics in Sudan. At last, this will lead to general understanding of genetic backgrounds of these diseases and their treatments.