Wat kan genetisch onderzoek ons leren over de overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen psychiatrische aandoeningen?

BACKGROUND: Genetic research has made continuous progress in the past years, as a results of the rapidly growing sample sizes and development of novel analytical tools. <br> AIM: To present the latest developments in research into the genetic overlap and differences between psychiatric disorders.<br> METHOD: Description of findings from recent literature.<br> RESULTS: First of all, psychiatric disorders differ in their heritability, and consequently impact of environmental factors. Second, some disorders show high concordance in direction of genetic effects, while other disorders have rather different effects. Using these genetic (dis)similarities, subgroups of psychiatric disorders can also be defined. <br> CONCLUSION: Genetic research is developing at rapid pace, and much more will be learned about the genetic overlap and differences between psychiatric disorders in the next years. The big promise -and challenge- will be to integrate genetic research with research of environmental factors, other biological measures and more detailed phenotypic information.<br>.