I was initially worried when the headline said "psychiatric" research, but was pleasantly surprised when I read the article and found out that what they really meant was neuro-biology and its genetic origins, not study of patient behavior. The "top-down" approach has failed psychiatry (or more accurately, psychology) for half a century. I'm glad to see the bottom-up approach (i.e. starting with genes and cells and then working your way up to thoughts/feelings/behaviors) taking the lead.
It's at least worth noting that it's only within the last decade that such an approach has become viable -- we're still entirely unable to establish any relationship between genetics and psychiatric illness via theory, so massive, inexpensive genetic analysis was a prerequisite to this sort of study (which still relies on correct diagnosis in order to find genetic correlates).
Comments
I was initially worried when the headline said "psychiatric" research, but was pleasantly surprised when I read the article and found out that what they really meant was neuro-biology and its genetic origins, not study of patient behavior. The "top-down" approach has failed psychiatry (or more accurately, psychology) for half a century. I'm glad to see the bottom-up approach (i.e. starting with genes and cells and then working your way up to thoughts/feelings/behaviors) taking the lead.
It's at least worth noting that it's only within the last decade that such an approach has become viable -- we're still entirely unable to establish any relationship between genetics and psychiatric illness via theory, so massive, inexpensive genetic analysis was a prerequisite to this sort of study (which still relies on correct diagnosis in order to find genetic correlates).