Will new pathways and classifications be developed to understand mental health problems?

Genes and Disease… Will genetic links help us discover new ways to understand people with mental health problems? Will these genetic links help in the discovery of new treatments?

Here is a link to an interesting ‘genes & disease’ map to consider…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/05/05/science/20080506_DISEASE.html?ref=health#
I can find Schizophrenia and SAD, but I can’t seem to find Bipolar disorder or depression here… can anyone locate it? (psychiatric dx are in green)
Here is the associated article to figure out what the map means. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/health/research/06dise.html?pagewanted=1

It is interesting to think about the possibilities that arise from studies of these shared links. As the article suggests, there may be drugs used in one disorder that could lead to new discoveries of treatments for genetically linked disorders. This is indeed exciting to consider, particularly in mental health. However the potential for discovery also relates to the mechanisms of action of the drug within the pathway of causality to a particular disorder. So it does depend greatly on how that genetic link cascades out into the actual physiologic abnormality.

There is some discussion of classification of disease in psychiatry in the article as well. One view is that Schizophrenia and Bipolar share some common genetic links. Given this, Dr. Berrettini from Penn suggests we have not correctly categorized disorders. The other view is that even with shared genes the two diseases are distinct. We have all had the experience (or for our newest students will have the experience) of considering whether an individual’s problem is actually schizophrenia or bipolar, and of course there is schizoaffective to consider too.

It is interesting to consider whether the groupings and categorizations we use in psych mental health are helpful (and in what way?).

It is also interesting to brainstorm and open our views to other possibilities of how we might understand and categorize the difficulties of the people we work with and try to help.

What are your thoughts on these categories?

What are your thoughts on the usefulness of considering the genetic links between disorders?