Genetics of mood disorders

Craddock, Nick

doi:10.1383/psyt.2006.5.5.170

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Volume 5, Issue 5 , Pages 170-174, 1 May 2006

Genetics of mood disorders

Nick Craddock MBChB MMedSci PhD FRCPsych was Professor of Molecular Psychiatry and Head of the University of Birmingham Department of Psychiatry and Division of Neuroscience until 2002, when he moved to his current position of Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University, UK. He studied mathematical sciences at Cambridge University followed by Medicine at Birmingham University, and trained in clinical psychiatry in Birmingham and psychiatric genetics in Cardiff and St Louis, USA. His research focus is the molecular genetic investigation of bipolar spectrum mood disorders and psychosis. He has a specific interest in using molecular genetics to refine the clinical phenotype. His clinical interests lie in the management of treatment-resistant bipolar spectrum disorders.

Abstract

The enormous public health importance of mood disorders, when considered alongside their substantial heritabilities, has stimulated much work, predominantly in bipolar disorder but increasingly in unipolar depression, aimed at identifying susceptibility genes using molecular genetic approaches. Several chromosomal regions of interest have emerged in linkage studies and, recently, evidence implicating specific genes has been reported; the best supported include BDNF and DAOA but further replications are required and phenotypic relationships and biological mechanisms need investigation. The complexity of psychiatric phenotypes is demonstrated by (a) the evidence accumulating for an overlap in genetic susceptibility across the traditional classification systems that divide disorders into schizophrenia and mood disorders, and (b) evidence suggestive of gene–environment interactions.

Keywords: mood disorders , BDNF , bipolar disorder , DAOA , gene–environment interactions , molecular genetics , susceptibility genes , unipolar depression