Attitudes of medical genetics practitioners and psychiatrists toward communicating with patients about genetic risk for psychiatric disorders.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the self-rated competencies and perceived roles of medical geneticists, genetic counselors, and psychiatrists in the communication of genetic risk for psychiatric disorders to patients and families at an increased risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder, and their perspectives on training needs in this field.

Materials And Methods: Clinically active members of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) were invited to complete the online survey. A total of 157 responses were included in data analysis: 17 medical geneticists, 36 genetics counselors, and 104 psychiatrists.

Preferences regarding targeted education and risk assessment in people with a family history of major depressive disorder.

Genetic testing for susceptibility to major depressive disorder (MDD) is not available for clinical use at present. Given this, family history remains the best predictor for development of MDD, and family-history-based risk assessment and information about familial aspects of MDD may be useful to clients at increased risk for MDD attending for genetic counseling. This study uses a mixed-methods design to assess the information needs and preferences of people at increased familial risk for MDD.

Cluster randomized controlled trial of a psycho-educational intervention for people with a family history of depression for use in general practice.

Background: The strongest risk factor for depression is having a family history of the condition. Many individuals with a family history of depression are concerned about their personal risk for depression and report unmet educational and psychological support needs. No supportive and/or educational interventions are currently available that target this group of individuals.

Exploring culture-specific differences in beliefs about causes, kinship and the heritability of major depressive disorder: the views of Anglo-Celtic and Chinese-Australians.

The aim of this study was to explore cultural differences in causal attributions and beliefs about heritability of major depressive disorder (MDD). Face-to-face interviews with Anglo-Celtic- and Chinese-Australians community members with a family history of MDD were conducted and subjected to a rigorous qualitative analysis, using the computer software NVivo. Sixteen Anglo-Celtic-Australians and 16 Chinese-Australians were interviewed.

Implications of the use of genetic tests in psychiatry, with a focus on major depressive disorder: a review.

Advances in technology have enabled research to link many genetic markers to specific disease risk. This has led to the commercialization of genetic tests across a wide range of medical disorders. Public interest in one's own future health and an increasing desire for autonomy over one's health care have facilitated a large and growing market for such genetic tests to be sold direct to the consumer (DTC).

Portrayal of psychiatric genetics in Australian print news media, 1996-2009.

Objective: To investigate how Australian print news media portray psychiatric genetics.

Design And Setting: Content and framing analysis of a structured sample of print news items about psychiatric genetics published in Australian newspapers between 1996 and 2009.

Main Outcome Measures: Identify dominant discourses about aetiology of mental illness, and perceived clinical outcomes and implications of psychiatric genetics research.

Community attitudes to genetic susceptibility-based mental health interventions for healthy people in a large national sample.

Background: Despite an apparent high interest in predictive genetic testing for common multifactorial disorders, few data describe anticipated health behaviour as a consequence of such testing.

Methods: A large population-based public survey with community dwelling adults (N = 1046) ascertained through random digit dialling. Attitudes were assessed via structured interviews.

Predictive and diagnostic genetic testing in psychiatry.

The recent advent of commercially available genetic tests for the diagnosis of several mental illnesses has led to intense controversy amongst the psychiatric research community. In this article the authors review these developments, and contrast these with the growing evidence from genomewide association studies that highly heritable psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia are due to the contributions and interaction of multiple allelic variants, each of small effect size. There is also evidence for the contribution of some highly penetrant rare de novo copy number variants, though the lack of disease specificity for these is of concern.

Predictive and diagnostic genetic testing in psychiatry.

The recent advent of commercially available genetic tests for the diagnosis of several mental illnesses has led to intense controversy amongst the psychiatric research community. In this article the authors review these developments, and contrast these with the growing evidence from genome-wide association studies that highly heritable psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia are due to the contributions and interaction of multiple allelic variants, each of small effect size. There is also evidence for the contribution of some highly penetrant rare de novo copy number variants, though the lack of disease specificity for these is of concern.

Community attitudes towards mental health interventions for healthy people on the basis of genetic susceptibility.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate, using serotonin transporter genotyping as an example, the preparedness of individuals from an urban general population identified with hypothetical genetic risk for a depressive disorder to moderate risk through cognitive or behavioural intervention. It also evaluated endorsement of genetic and environmental causal attributions of mental illness.

Method: A qualitative approach using focus group methodology was selected as most appropriate because these issues are relatively unexplored.

Public interest in predictive genetic testing, including direct-to-consumer testing, for susceptibility to major depression: preliminary findings.

The past decade has seen rapid advances in the identification of associations between candidate genes and a range of common multifactorial disorders. This paper evaluates public attitudes towards the complexity of genetic risk prediction in psychiatry involving susceptibility genes, uncertain penetrance and gene-environment interactions on which successful molecular-based mental health interventions will depend. A qualitative approach was taken to enable the exploration of the views of the public.