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Seminar: Addictive Behaviour: a Genetic Perspective
06 Jan 2010-06 Jan 2010, 10:00-11:00, Seminar rooms A & B, MRC SGDP Centre, Denmark Hill CampusEvent series: SGDP Wednesday seminars
School / area: Institute of Psychiatry
Department: MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre
Location: Denmark Hill Campus
Speaker: Professor Gunter Schumann
Speaker institution: MRC SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry
Abstract:
Substance use disorders are common psychiatric disorders that exert a very high cost to the individual and to society. They are a result of the interplay of multiple behavioural, genetic and environmental factors. Addictive behaviour is characterized by phenotypic heterogeneity, epistasis and polygenicity, implying a contribution of different neurobiological mechanisms to the clinical diagnosis. Therefore, treatments for most addiction-related disorders are often only partially effective, with a substantial proportion of patients failing to respond. To address heterogeneity and polygenicity, strategies have been developed to identify more homogeneous subgroups of patients and to characterize genes contributing to their (endo-) phenotype.
In this presentation, gene identification strategies using whole genome approaches as well as translational candidate gene strategies to identify the genetic and neurobiological basis of addictive behaviour will be presented, their mechanistic function will be characterised and their association with endophenotypes relevant for addiction-related disorders will be described. Applying these strategies in a translational context aims at improving therapeutic response by the identification of subgroups of addiction patients for individualized, targeted treatment strategies. Finally, a European Integrated Project "IMAGEN", which investigates reinforcement-related behaviour using multicentric gene × neuroimaging in 2000 adolescents will be presented. This project aims to integrate the methodical approaches discussed above in order to identify the genetic and neurobiological basis of behavioural traits relevant to the development of addictions.
Contact name: Isabel Sinha
Email: Isabel.Sinha@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 0871
This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202 Fax: 020-7848 3739 Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk