Title: Mental health: On the spectrum : Nature News & Comment
Headings: Mental health: On the spectrum
Mental health: On the spectrum
Manual evolution
“We need to give researchers permission to think outside these traditional silos.”
Rival approach
Change of tack
References
Author information
Commenting is currently unavailable.

Content: It was unthinkable to study them together.” “We need to give researchers permission to think outside these traditional silos,” says Hyman. “ We need to get them to re-analyse these conditions from the bottom up.” “We need to give researchers permission to think outside these traditional silos.” In the past few years, some researchers have taken up the challenge — and the findings from genetics and brain-imaging studies support the idea that the DSM disorders overlap. Studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging show that people with anxiety disorders and those with mood disorders share a hyperactive response of the brain's amygdala region to negative emotion and aversion 1. Similarly, those with schizophrenia and those with post-traumatic stress disorder both show unusual activity in the prefrontal cortex when asked to carry out tasks that require sustained attention 1. And in the largest study yet undertaken to try to pinpoint the genetic roots of mental disorder, a group led by Jordan Smoller at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston screened genome information from more than 33,000 people with five major mental-health syndromes, looking for genetic sequences associated with their illness 2. At the end of February, the team reported that some genetic risk factors — specifically, four chromosomal sites — are associated with all five disorders: autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia. “