The biography of psychiatric genetics: From early achievements to historical burden, from an anxious society to critical geneticists

Abstract

When the study of human inheritance became a topic of scientific interest more than 100 years ago, brain function and mental disease immediately attracted the interest of researchers. Psychiatric genetics was dominated from its early beginnings by the question of nature and nurture. Today this problem can be quantitatively approached with odds ratios and attributable risks for certain genotypes. The false doctrine of eugenics and its practical application by the Nazi regime paved the way for the development of a prevailing anxiety in society that psychiatric genetics might lead to stigmatisation or even a revitalization of eugenics. The major challenge for the field, however, stems from the attitudes of fellow geneticists who doubt that genetics can ever contribute to an understanding of brain function and mental disease. Whereas genetically complex traits are being successfully pinned down to the molecular level in other fields of medicine, psychiatric genetics still awaits a major breakthrough. Although mental disorders are harder to tackle than any other complex disease the concepts developed and the methods available today are powerful enough to predict a bright future of the field.