In recent years, techniques to detect variation of particular genes, and even to assess the whole genome, have improved at a pace that can only be called revolutionary. This search promises personalized drug therapy in the future, whereby the choice of drug may be determined by the genes a patient carries. Thus, the implications of pharmacogenetic research for the field of psychiatry are significant. This new focus of psychiatric research is reflected in the decision of the Editorial Board to publish 4 selected papers dealing with pharmacogenetics. One of the transported lipids is phosphatidylcholine, a compound donating choline for the synthesis of acetylcholine.
Genetic diseases are rare, but all common diseases are associated with a number of genes.
For a long time there have been suggestions that dopamine receptor variants may contribute to schizophrenia, so it is not surprising that serotonin receptors have also been suspected by various researchers. Nonuniformity of the disorder is a major cause of this difficulty. In collaboration with members of the lithium clinics in rhus, Berlin, G teborg, Prague and Vienna, Alda confirmed the absence of major influences of tyrosine hydroxylase and of several genes on chromosome 18. The data suggest that patients who respond to lithium suffer from a typical, episodic form of bipolar illness. The author stresses the need for further investigations.