Professor Michael Gill delivers his Inaugural Lecture as Chair of Psychiatry at TCD
Posted on: 19 April 2007
Professor Michael Gill delivered his Inaugural Lecture as Chair of Psychiatry at TCD, entitled Molecules and Mental Illness – A Project for a Scientific Psychology on April 18th last. In the course of the lecture, Professor Gill outlined the progress which has been made in identifying genes involved in major psychiatric disorders and in understanding their function. According to Professor Gill the challenge now is how to use this knowledge to unravel the biological basis of these disorders and understand how neurobiology interacts with the environment.
Speaking at the lecture, Professor Gill said: “These are very exciting times to be involved in research in psychiatric genetics and neuroscience, the emerging findings have the potential to revolutionise how we think about mental illness.”
The TCD Professor of Psychiatry outlined research into the molecular genetic basis of psychiatric disorders in Ireland and throughout the world, along with background into the technologies underlying the science, referring to recent findings from the Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group in Trinity College Dublin. This multidisciplinary group which was established by Professor Gill includes clinical scientists, research nurses, psychologists, geneticists, and other scientists and has three main programmes of research on the genetics of Schizophrenia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism. Professor Gill’s team are leading several international studies including the Global Autism Genome Project which has recently been granted €12 million in funding.
The TCD Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group’s findings include:
– That in Autism, new forms of genetic variation, including small duplications and deletions account for a significant number of cases of Autism, particularly cases where there is no family history of the disorder.
– That in Schizophrenia, individual genes can determine some of the clinical and neuropsychological features of the disorder.
– That in ADHD, variation in disorder associated genes are also involved in the normal variation of neuropsychological and cognitive function.
– That some genes are not specific to one disorder only and that this might begin to explain some of the observed overlap in clinical features between autism and ADHD.
– That in ADHD, some of the gene variations can predict treatment outcome.
Professor Gill highlighted what is required to make further progress in this field such as: more accurate methods of measuring brain function; a greater understanding of the genetic control of brain development or wiring; more attention to the clinical, psychological and cognitive measurement of individual cases and an awareness of the new tools for examining fine detailed chromosome structure.
According to Professor Gill, a greater understanding of the biological basis of psychiatric disorders will lead to many new developments. These include the prediction of treatment response and the consequent reduction in the unnecessary use of medications; the early identification of those at high risk facilitating early interventions and preventative strategies; new rational biological treatment targets as well as an overall reduction in the stigma associated with mental illness in Ireland.
