BIOGENETICS OF MENTAL DISORDERS

Abstract

Many researchers believe that mental disorders like schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD), conduct disorders (CD), attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are biological in origin. The challenge confronting psychologists, especially clinical psychologists, is to expand the horizon of abnormal behavior to include the influences biological factors have on the etiology of mental disorders. The variation observed in individual differences in normal and psychopathological behaviors have raised an array of controversies among researchers. The disease model theorists hold genetic factors as a major contributor at the most distal end of a complex genetic-to-behavior pathway. The fundamental behaviorists, on the other hand, believe that if separated from environmental factors, the whole search for the origin of mental disorder is stunted and meaningless. Therefore, the interface between biogenetic and environmental factors in the etiologies of mental disorder remains controversial. The middle way or the prototype for a complex systems approach to psychopathology is the integrative approach that investigates the sequential and concurrent roles of biogenetics, environment, chance, and time factors in the causation of such mental disorders like, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), Conduct Disorders (CD), Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity (ADHD), and Schizophrenia.