Merikangas, K. R., & Merikangas, A. K. (2019).

Harnessing progress in psychiatric genetics to

advance population mental health. American Journal of Public Health, 109(3), 171-175.
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.304948

This article, written by authors Kathleen Ries Merikangas and Alison K. Merikangas,
discusses the current progress and obstacles in the field of psychiatric genetics. The article
emphasizes the use of genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, to recognize genetic markers
that can identify the risk factors of mental illnesses. However, the article also refutes this use by
claiming that GWAS cannot determine the causes of many other mental illnesses because of how
complex they are. GWAS also cannot distinguish many mental illnesses, especially new variants
of them, and also cannot identify numerous environmental factors because of their complex
nature. Despite these obstacles existing, the article proposes that collecting more samples will
hasten progress in psychiatric genetics, eventually contributing to more genetic variants being
identified. The article also suggests utilizing polygenic risk scores, which improve the accuracy
of the GWAS. Overall, this article discusses the idea of using genome-wide association studies to
further progress psychiatric genetics but also acknowledges the drawbacks of using GWAS, as
well as measures that can be taken in the future to improve the accuracy of genetic testing.

The authors, Kathleen Ries Merikangas and Alison K. Merikangas, are qualified to
discuss psychiatric genetics because their credentials both include a PhD. Kathleen Ries
Merikagas currently is under the Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch, Division of Intramural
Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD. Alison K. Merikangas
currently is under the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. Kathleen Ries Merikagas is a correspondent for this article, and
her contact information is included in the article. Written 3 years ago, this source is current on
the topic of psychiatric genetics. The authors of this article thoroughly evaluated all sides of the
issue. For example, they acknowledge that genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are not
high in accuracy because they cannot identify complex genetic variants, then address that
opposing viewpoint by stating that collecting more samples and using polygenic risk scores can
improve the accuracy of GWAS. This inclusion shows that the article’s authors acknowledge
alternative viewpoints because the authors recognize the drawbacks of GWAS but still support
its use due to the increase in progress that GWAS has contributed to the field of psychiatric
genetics. The information contained in the source can also be verified elsewhere. For example,
the author states that Mendelian randomization can be used to observe the relationship between
smoking tobacco and mental health. This can be corroborated by Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi,
Michael J Green, Amy E Taylor, George Davey Smith, and Marcus R Munafò in their
publication “Assessing causal relationships using genetic proxies for exposures: an introduction
to Mendelian randomization,” which discusses how MR (Mendelian randomization) studies can
identify addictive behaviors (such as smoking) and further contribute to addiction research. The
purpose of this article is to discuss current progress in the field of psychiatric genetics in order to
identify mental disorders. The audience are research scientists and psychiatrists investigating
psychiatric genetics. The article is appropriate for this purpose and audience because it proposes
utilizing genome-wide association studies to predict risk factors of mental illnesses. These
studies revealed thousands of genetic sequences that identified genetic risk factors of mental
illnesses. The results of GWAS can be utilized by research scientists and psychiatrists to
investigate the transfer of mental illness by genetics.