Gene-environment interactions in psychiatry: joining forces with neuroscience.
Gene-environment interaction research in psychiatry is new, and is a natural ally of neuroscience. Mental disorders have known environmental causes, but there is heterogeneity in the response to each causal factor, which gene-environment findings attribute to genetic differences at the DNA sequence level. Such findings come from epidemiology, an ideal branch of science for showing that a gene-environment interactions exist in nature and affect a significant fraction of disease cases. The complementary discipline of epidemiology, experimental neuroscience, fuels gene-environment hypotheses and investigates underlying neural mechanisms. This article discusses opportunities and challenges in the collaboration between psychiatry, epidemiology and neuroscience in studying gene-environment interactions.
Caspi
Avshalom
A
Medical Research Council Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, P0 Box 80 De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. a.caspi@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Moffitt
Terrie E
TE
D000818:Animals; D004777:Environment; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends