Chapter 1.3 PsycheMap — An online database of psychiatric genetics linkage, association, and genome mapping projects

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the development of a central database which is specific to the functional psychoses and which can be used as a gateway to the major genetic databases that contain the relevant information for gene mapping. This is an ideal start site for those new to the field of psychiatric genetics, and a useful resource for those more experienced. It outlines the major goals of psychiatric genetics to identify susceptibility genes for major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (often known together as the functional psychoses). The candidate gene approach requires partial knowledge about the disease function from which a specific gene can be targeted because of its putative function. This approach relies on the presence of previously identified genes whose feature suggests that they may be suitable candidates.