Comments on: Psychiatric Genetics

By: who knows

who knows — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:29:21 +0000

Although autism is neither wholly caused by genetic factors, I believe it would be beneficial to continue to pursue research into being able to find genetic markers for this.

By: jonathan

jonathan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:21:39 +0000

the spontaneous mutation research sort of puts a dent in the theories of temple grandin and simon baron cohen that autism is not really a disability because it has stayed in the population because the genes provide some soft of evolutionary advantage since autistic people usually don’t have children, particularly grandin’s theories about autism genetics being responsible for every invention known to man from the spear to the cellphone.

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:09:52 +0000

The big problem with the virtually exclusive focus on genetics is that it is very well known that there is a non-genetic component. The magnitude of that non-genetic component is unknown. The monozygous twin, fraternal twin and sibling studies are complicated by the fact that twins shared an in utero environment that has nothing to do with their shared genetics.