Family History in Holistic Psychiatry

Genetic Vulnerability & Other Shared "Root Causes" in Families

When it comes to psychiatric conditions or any health condition, the question often asked is, “How much is due to genetics?” In this newsletter, I address that question and discuss the non-genetic factors, shared within families, that can impact brain health. I’ll also discuss areas I consider when taking a family history.

Do Genes Cause Psychiatric Conditions

Even in conventional or allopathic psychiatry, it is recognized that genetics is just one of the factors contributing to brain-related conditions.

Condition General Population First Degree Relative

Schizophrenia ~1% ~10-15%

Bipolar Disorder ~1-2% ~10-15%

Schizoaffective Disorder ~.5-1% ~10-15%

Major Depression ~15-20% ~35-40%

Anxiety Disorder ~5% ~20%

OCD ~2-3% ~10-25%

(From Jehannine Austin, PhD, “Mental Illness and Genetics": Family History and Protecting Your Mental Health” for Genetic Counselors and You Webinar Series)

Since family members don’t normally have the same genetic makeup, it is important to look at family members who do.  Research into identical twins becomes important here.

Chance For a twin to have the same 

condition their co-twin has

Identical Twins Non-Identical Twins

Schizophrenia ~50% ~15%

Bipolar Disorder ~40-70% ~20%

Depression ~35% ~26%

Anxiety Disorder ~25% ~10%

From Jehannine Austin, PhD, “Mental Illness and Genetics": Family History and Protecting Your Mental Health” for Genetic Counselors and You Webinar Series)

As you can see, even for twins with the same genetic makeup, psychiatric conditions do not occur in both 100%.  All this to say, we don’t inherit a psychiatric condition. We inherit a vulnerability to a psychiatric condition. Other factors have to be present.  

Holistic, Functional, or Root Cause Perspective

From a functional (root cause) perspective, we agree with this idea of vulnerability.  Where would differ, however, is that we recognize that there are multiple “bio-types” of various psychiatric conditions. For example, there are three main types of schizophrenia, which are biochemically very different.  We would expect identical twins to have a shared vulnerability to one of those biochemical imbalances.