Nature, Nurture and Mood Disorders at the MRC SGDP Centre.

Nature, Nurture and Mood Nature, Nurture and Mood Disorders at the MRC SGDP Disorders at the MRC SGDP CentreCentre

Peter McGuffinPeter McGuffin

MRC Social, Genetic and MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry CentreDevelopmental Psychiatry Centre

Institute of Psychiatry, King’s Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College LondonCollege London

Nature, Nurture and Mood Disorders Nature, Nurture and Mood Disorders at the MRC SGDP Centreat the MRC SGDP Centre

Life events ( LE) are familial (McGuffin et al 1988)

For severe events this is because they are often shared ( Farmer et al 2000)

G self reported LE and G depression correlated ( Plomin, Eley)

G and LE interact ( Farmer, Caspi)

Same Genes Different Disorders?

The G of mania and depression correlated ( not just a continuum of severity) (McGuffin et al 2003)

The G of schizophrenia, schizo-affective and bipolar disorder correlated (Cardno et al 2002)

This confirmed by molecular genetics

Molecules and mood

5HTTLPR and LE interact ( Caspi et al 2003)We can track genes in families ( if we have

enough families) ( eg Breen et al 2011)We can tag genes in unrelateds– GWAS (if we

have huge samples) ( eg Lewis et al 2010)Some completely unforeseen quirks of the genome

have emerged such as CNVs (eg Rucker et al 2011)

It’s complex!