Beyond Nature and Nurture in Psychiatry: Genes, The Environment, and Their Interplay (European Foundation for Psychiatry at the Maudsley)

For much of the last century, the so-called nature-nuture debate polarised opinion about the aetiology of mental illness. But the extreme biological or environmental positions adopted in the past are not supported by the recent evidence. Based on lectures presented as part of the third European Foundation for Psychiatry at the Maudsley (EFPM) meeting, this book will show that genes and environment are both important, and may correlate or interact with one another. The nature-nurture debate is finally over: and both sides were wrong. Psychiatric disorders are rarely determined by genes or environment alone. Not only are nature and nurture both important, but they often interact with one another. This book presents the fascinating new data that have led to this conclusion, and discusses the methodological and conceptual challenges that lie ahead. Based on lectures presented at the third meeting of the European Foundation for Psychiatry at The Maudsley (EFPM), this book will be important to psychiatrists, psychologists, epidemiologists and geneticists