Genome-wide association studies

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have evolved over the past ten years into a very successful tool for investigating the genetic architecture of multifactorial human traits and disorders. One major advantage of GWAS is that they do not require any a priori knowledge about the biological mechanisms underlying the traits and disorders under study. This chapter describes the scientific and technological developments that made GWAS possible and the underlying basic concept of these studies. The chapter considers what has been learned from GWAS in psychiatric research so far, what are the limitations, and looks forward to the future of GWAS.