Brain Disease or Existential Crisis?
As the schizophrenia/psychosis recovery research continues to emerge, we discover increasing evidence that psychosis is not caused by a disease of the brain, but...
The Trouble with Twin Studies
As most readers are aware, it is widely believed that both within and without of psychiatry genetic factors play an important role in causing major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, ADHD, autism, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Twin studies provide the main pillar of support for this belief which is often, though mistakenly, presented as a scientific fact.
Mental Health Professionals Critique the Biomedical Model of Psychological Problems
While a great deal of the excitement about advances in psychological treatments comes from the potential for research in neuroscience to unlock the secrets of the brain, many mental health experts would like to temper this enthusiasm. A special issue of the Behavior Therapist released this month calls into question the predominant conception of mental illnesses as brain disorders.
Schizophrenia and Genetics: A Closer Look at the Evidence
âThe substantial hereditary component in schizophrenia,â a pair of researchers wrote in 1993, âis surely one of the two or three best-established facts in psychiatry.â But is it really? For mainstream psychiatry and psychiatric genetics, schizophrenia is âa severe mental disorder with a lifetime risk of about 1%, characterized by hallucinations, delusions and cognitive deficits, with heritability estimated at up to 80%,â or a âhighly heritable neuropsychiatric disorder of complex genetic etiology.â Many commentators have challenged these claims, and some have challenged the concept of schizophrenia itself.
Twin Studies are Still in Trouble: A Response to Turkheimer
Human behavioral genetics and its allied field of psychiatric genetics are in trouble, as unfulfilled gene discovery expectations during the âeuphoria of the 1980sâ have continued to the present day, leading to researchersâ ânonreplication curseâ dysphoria of the 2010s. In my recent book The Trouble with Twin Studies: A Reassessment of Twin Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, I presented a detailed argument that genetic interpretations of the common âclassical twin methodâ finding that reared-together MZ twin pairs resemble each other more (correlate higher) for behavioral characteristics than do reared-together same-sex DZ twin pairs are invalid because, among other reasons, the twin methodâs crucial MZ-DZ âequal environment assumptionâ (EEA) is false.
Researchers Question Link Between Genetics and Depression
A new study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, found no link between genetics and the occurrence of depressive symptoms.
Brain Imaging Reveals Psychiatric Disorders are Not Neurological Disorders
Some researchers have been arguing to reclassify all psychiatric disorders as diseases of the brain and nervous system, similar to epilepsy or Parkinson's disease. Neuroimaging research, however, reveals that psychiatric disorders appear to be distinct from neurological disorders, according to a new study published in this monthâs issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
A Critique of Genetic Research on Schizophrenia â Expensive Castles in the Air
In the light of the much trumpeted claims that recent research has identified genes for schizophrenia, it is important to review the track record of this type of endeavor. Despite thousands of studies costing millions of dollars, and endless predictions that the genetics of schizophrenia would shortly be revealed, the field has so far failed to identify any genes that substantially increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.
Quotations From the Genetics âGraveyardâ: Nearly Half a Century of False Positive Gene Discovery...
In a 1992 essay, British psychiatric genetic researcher Michael Owen wondered whether schizophrenia molecular genetic research would become the âgraveyard of molecular geneticists.â1 Owen predicted that if major schizophrenia genes existed, they would be found within five years of that date. He was optimistic, believing that âtalk of graveyards is premature.â2 Owen now believes that genes for schizophrenia and other disorders have been found, and was subsequently knighted for his work. Despite massively improved technology, however, decades of molecular genetic gene finding attempts have failed to provide consistently replicated evidence of specific genes that play a role in causing the major psychiatric disorders.
Large German Anti-Stigma Campaign Shows Little Effect on Attitudes
âOverall, this study showed that the information and awareness campaign had almost no significant effects on the general public's attitudes toward people affected by either schizophrenia or depression,â the researchers, led by German medical sociologist Anna Makowski, wrote. âOne could assume that deeply rooted convictions cannot be modified by rather time-limited and general activities targeted at the public.â
“Bewitching Science” Revisited: Tales of Reunited Twins and the Genetics of Behavior
In this article I will attempt to debunk one of the great âscientificâ smoke and mirrors shows of the past half centuryâthe claim that stories of reunited separated MZ (monozygotic, identical) twin pairs indicate that heredity plays a major role in causing human behavioral differences. These stories, which are often used to sell the false ideology of genetic determinism, have entered the public imagination in a way that academic research results never could. Here I will show that these stories provide no evidence whatsoever that (as yet undiscovered) âgenes for behaviorâ influence human behavioral development.
The Failed Quest for Biomarkers in Psychiatry
A recent commentary by Ganesan Venkatasubramanian and Matcheri Keshavan notes that efforts to identify biomarkers in people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders have been overwhelmingly...
Twin Studies and the “Nonreplication Curse” in Psychiatric Molecular Genetic Research
Psychiatric molecular genetic research has failed to discover genes that underlie the major psychiatric disorders, the existence of which twin and adoption studies are assumed to have established. "Genome-wide complex trait analysis" (GCTA) was developed a few years ago as a means of solving what researchers call the "missing heritability" problem. One researcher believed that the new GCTA method would âdrive a stake through the heart ofâ criticism of behavioral genetic theories and methods, and would finally put criticism of twin studies âto rest.â The opposite scenario appears to be playing out, however, as leading behavioral genetic and psychiatric genetic researchers struggle to prevent some recent negative GCTA findings and the obvious false assumptions underlying twin research from driving a stake through the heart of twin studies themselves.
Search for Schizophrenia Gene Marches On
In a study released June 6, 2012 through the online journal Behavioral and Brain Functions, researchers from Japan acknowledge that "the results of association...
The Latest Gene Finding Claim in Psychiatry
On February 28th, the New York Times reported the latest psychiatric disorder âgene findingâ claim in an article entitled â5 Disorders Share Genetic Risk Factors, Study Shows,â The Times reporter described a study that claimed to have identified shared genes associated with five psychiatric disorders: autism spectrum disorder, attention/deďŹcit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. We have seen thousands of such claims in psychiatry since the 1960s, and we have also seen that these claims do not survive replication attempts.
Why Precision Psychiatry is Not a Paradigm Shift
A letter just published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that âprecision psychiatryâ is not the paradigm shift itâs purported to be by the psychiatric establishment.
A Blood Test for Schizophrenia with 83% Accuracy?
An NBC online News article dated October 15, 2010, carried the noteworthy title New blood test may help detect schizophrenia. The article was written by Natasha Allen, a freelance medical journalist. The gist of the article is that there is a new blood test called VeriPsych which "researchers say" is 83% accurate in discriminating people who are "schizophrenic" from people who are not.
Comments on Jeffrey Lieberman and Ogi Ogasâ Wall Street Journal Article on the Genetics...
The March 3rd, 2016 edition of the Wall Street Journal featured an article by past President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Jeffrey Lieberman and his colleague, computational neuroscientist Ogi Ogas. The article was entitled âGenetics and Mental IllnessâLetâs Not Get Carried Away.â In their piece, the authors started by expressing the belief that a recent study identified a gene that causes schizophrenia, and then discussed whether it is desirable or possible to remove allegedly pathological genes in the interest of creating a future âmentally perfect society.â The authors of the article, like many previous textbook authors, seem unfamiliar with the questionable âevidenceâ put forward by psychiatry as proof that its disorders are âhighly heritableâ In fact, DSM-5 Task Force Chair David Kupfer admitted that âweâre still waitingâ for the discovery of âbiological and genetic markersâ for psychiatric disorders.
Philosophers Challenge Psychiatry and its Search for Mechanisms of Disorder
Attempting to locate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorder is a step in the wrong direction and fails to challenge potentially unjust social practices.
Researcher Urges Caution When Applying Genetics to Psychiatry
In a review editorial for the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, neurobiology researcher Steven Dubovsky from the University at Buffalo argues against the adoption of...
It is Time to Abandon the Candidate-Gene Approach to Depression
The candidate-gene approach to depression goes unsupported and is likely based on bad science, new research finds.
Brain Imaging Results Biased by Lack of Representative Data
What does "normal" brain development throughout childhood look like? It may depend on your demographics.
DSM-5’s âSpeculativeâ 2002 Diagnostic System Based On Expected Gene Findings
According to a leading group of psychiatric genetic researchers, writing in 1999, âFrom the perspective of psychiatric genetics, the Human Genome Project is an immense factory producing and refining the tools we will need to discover the genes that cause mental illness.â A 2002 âspeculative outlineâ by a group helping to revise the DSM envisioned a future DSM-5 practice of classifying disorders on the basis of "the patientâs genotype, identifying symptom- or disease-related genes, resiliency genes, and genes related to therapeutic responses and side effects to specific psychotropic drugs.â A dozen or so years ago, at least some of the DSM-5 architects believed that genes would at long last be identified and would be integrated into the next version of the DSM. As we know, this did not happen.
Familial Factors Affect Depression, BD, OCD, PD, and Phobias
A study of 566 families with 1416 bipolar-disordered members, and 675 families with 1726 depressed members by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University...
The Latest News from Twin Research: The Genetic Influence on Political Voting Choices is...
There seems to be no end to illogical and even comical âfindingsâ from MZ-DZ twin method comparisons, where the original twin researchers argue that the greater behavioral resemblance of reared-together MZ (monozygotic, identical) versus same-sex DZ (dizygotic, fraternal) twin pairs demonstrates the âheritabilityâ of the behavioral characteristic in question. Among these we find a twin study whose authors concluded in favor of a genetic basis for being a âborn again Christianâ (65% heritability), another that found important genetic influences on tea and coffee drinking preferences, and still another that found that the heritability of âloneliness in adultsâ is 48%.