Events

Marked for Life: Are Genetic Markers Helpful in Understanding Psychological Disorders?

Progress Educational Trust
Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE, UK
03 March 2010 -

Left to right: Dr Anand Saggar, Professor Derek Bolton, Professor Nick Craddock, Fenno Outen
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda
See other photographs of this event below

---

This evening debate was organised by the Progress Educational Trust (PET) in partnership with the Royal Society of Medicine, and was supported by the Wellcome Trust. A video recording of the event is available on the Royal Society of Medicine website. The event formed part of the PET project Spectrum of Opinion: Genes, Autism and Psychological Spectrum Disorders, and a synopsis of the proceedings forms part of the School Resource Pack created by PET as part of this project.

By the end of 2008, genome-wide association studies of autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia in 80,000 subjects and 40billion total genotypes were said to constitute the largest biological experiment ever conducted in psychiatry. Since then, a massive international project has set out to coordinate this growing wealth of genetic data. The first batch of analyses resulting from this work identified several significant common genetic variations associated with schizophrenia, and further findings are expected in 2010. Elsewhere, a 'transcriptional atlas of human brain development' is being created to understand patterns of gene expression relevant to mental health.

What, if anything, does such genetic and epigenetic research mean for those with psychological disorders, their families and their carers? How does the heritability of these conditions relate to genetic, environmental and stochastic (random) factors? Can society's contribution to psychological disorders be usefully captured by categories such as 'gene' and 'environment', or does it need to be considered separately? If you are found to have 'the gene for' a disorder (as the popular expression has it), does this effectively mean you are marked for life?

---

Speakers

• Derek Bolton
  Professor of Philosophy and Psychopathology at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry

• Nick Craddock
  Professor of Psychiatry and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Cardiff University's School of Medicine and Coordinator of the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium

• Fenno Outen
  Head Occupational Therapist for Newham at East London NHS Foundation Trust

---

Chair

• Dr Anand Saggar
  Senior Consultant in Clinical Genetics at St Georges NHS Trust and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Genetics and Medicine at St George's University of London

---

Partners and supporters

• 

• 

---

Related articles

From PET's BioNews website

• Are genetic markers helpful in understanding psychological disorders?
  By Sandy Starr (Communications Officer at PET)

• Marked for life?
  By Derek Bolton (Professor of Philosophy and Psychopathology at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry)

• Mental health needs more research
  By Fenno Outen (Head Occupational Therapist for Newham at East London NHS Foundation Trust)

• Gene-ecology interactions and psychological disorders
  By Dr Tom Dickins (Reader in Evolutionary Psychology at the University of East London's School of Psychology and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology) and Sima Sandhu (Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD Student at the University of East London's School of Psychology)

• Are there 'genes for' traits?
  By John Dupré (Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Exeter and Director of the Economic and Social Research Council's Centre for Genomics in Society)

• Unnatural selection?
  By Helen Keeler (author and actress)

---

Left to right: Dr Anand Saggar, Professor Derek Bolton, Professor Nick Craddock, Fenno Outen, (at podium) Sarah Norcross
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

---

At podium: Sandy Starr
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

---

Left to right: Professor Derek Bolton, Dr Anand Saggar, Professor Nick Craddock, Fenno Outen
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

---

Left to right: Dr Anand Saggar, Professor Nick Craddock, Fenno Outen
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

---

On display, left to right:

Changing the Course of Autism: A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians
(buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA)

Autism: Mind and Brain
(buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA)

Effective Practices for Children with Autism: Educational and Behavioural Support Interventions that Work
(buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA)

Stress and Coping in Autism
(buy this book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA)

Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

---

Main lecture theatre at the Royal Society of Medicine
Photograph by Lahiru Dayananda

    Delicious      Facebook