Editorial: The Role of Immediate Early Genes in Neuropsychiatric Illness
Amelia L. Gallitano
Abstract
The field of psychiatry lags behind other areas of medicine in not yet having identified a single gene that causes a mental illness (excluding neuro-developmental or neurodegenerative disorders such as autism spectrum disorders or dementias). This is due to the "complex genetics" that underlie these disorders. Specifically, many genetic variations across the genome influence risk for neuropsychiatric illnesses, no single one of which is responsible for a large percentage of cases, and non-genomic factors play a major role in their development. Together, these form the two major challenges that the field of psychiatry faces to identify the causes of mental health disorders: (1) how so many genes can influence risk for these illnesses, and (2) how environment interacts with predisposing genetic variations to result in neuropsychiatric illness.