The Importance of Genetics in Mental Health

Many mental disorders Run in family. So if both of your parents had schizophrenia There's a much higher likelihood that you're also going to have schizophrenia Same goes with bipolar disorder or ADHD or other diagnoses. Researchers assumed well that means it must be genetic And so when we map the human genome project Everybody assumed we were going to have Miraculous things happening in the mental health field. But at the end of the day what they've found Is that there is no there are no genes that confer any Significant degrees of risk in the majority of people who have these disorders. Instead there are thousands of genes that confer tiny amounts of risk Usually less than 1% increased risk.