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: Basic research has offered little clarification. Despite decades of work, the genetic, metabolic and cellular signatures of almost all mental syndromes remain largely a mystery. Ironically, the ingrained category approach is actually inhibiting the scientific research that could refine diagnoses, in part because funding agencies have often favoured studies that fit the standard diagnostic groups. “ Until a few years ago we simply would not have been able to get a grant to study psychoses,” says Nick Craddock, who works at the Medical Research Council Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at Cardiff University, UK. “ Researchers studied bipolar disorder or they studied schizophrenia. 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.