About

Psychiatric disorders are very frequent in population and represent an important burden for patients and family, as they are very often chronic and recurrent. The origin of psychiatric disorders involves multiple biological, psychological and social factors, all of which of relevance. The Psychiatric Genetics group of the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), led by Javier Costas, is focused on the study of biological factors, specifically genetic factors, which increase individual susceptibility to suffer a psychiatric disorder. The main contribution to genetic susceptibility is due to many common variants along the genomeof very low individual effect on risk, although there are as well as rare variants of susceptibility, which may have greater effect. Due to the very limited effect on the risk of suffering from a disorder conferred by each common variant, its utility in risk prediction in isolation is null. However, it is possible to estimate the individual genetic risk of suffering from a disorder by combining the different variants in polygenic risk scores (PRS). Identification of genetic factors, and their interaction with environmental factors, will lead to better understanding of the biological basis of mental disorders, and will improve diagnosis, prognosis and management of patients, as a consequence of stratification in more homogeneous subgroups.

Now that precision medicine is beginning to be applied to other medical specialties, our research group seeks to ensure that patients with mental disorders can similarly benefit from genomic medicine, helping to eradicate the existing discrimination towards these people.