explanation Several new developments in research into psychiatric genetics will be discussed, including the analysis of comorbidity, genome-wide association analyses (gwa) and brain-gene-behaviour-disorder approaches. As it is now widely acknowledged that psychiatric disorders are partly influenced by genetic factors, current genetic epidemiological studies move beyond the simple analysis of heritability. These studies focus on the definition of the psychiatric diagnoses and how these are measured. Two of the presentations will address these issues. Other studies aim to extent the knowledge on the neurobiological processes underlying the disorders making use of the rapid progress in our knowledge on the genome and in the techniques for individual genotyping and neuro-imaging. One presentation will discuss imaging and genetic research in schizophrenia. The symposium will conclude with a presentation on individual risk prediction based on gwa studies of anxiety and depression.
aim At the end of the symposium, the participant will be informed about the latest developments in psychiatric genetic research.