Journal of psychiatric research
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Genetic factors contribute to the risk of psychopathology in many psychiatric conditions, but the specific genes are yet to be identified. Neurotransmitter alterations are implicated in the etiology of psychopathology based, in part, on studies of neurotransmitter receptors and their biosynthetic or degradative enzymes in postmortem tissue. Identification of the altered receptors and enzymes serves to identify candidate genes of potential etiological significance. ⋯ Functional polymorphisms involving the promoter region that affect gene expression may explain this finding. Studies of candidate genes related to serotonergic function in brain are increasingly used to establish genetic alterations contributing to psychiatric illness. The most meaningful studies combine the study of candidate genes with direct measures of related proteins as well as psychopathology.