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Psychiatric Genetics

Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuroscience, University of Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham B15 2QZ

EDITED BY SIDNEY CROWN and ALAN LEE

By John I. Nurnberger Jr & Wade Berrettini. London: Chapman & Hall Medical. 1998. 164 pp. £45.00 (hb). ISBN 0 412 535807

Nurnberger and Berrettini are well-respected authors with a strong track record in psychiatric genetic research, particularly in mood disorders. In general, the book is well presented, although there are a few surprising typographical errors. In addition to short chapters on methods and genetic counselling there is succinct coverage of most of the psychiatric disorders that have received psychiatric genetic attention to date. The coverage of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism is, however, excessively brief. The conciseness of this volume is both a strength and a weakness. The lack of detail is frustrating in places and some controversial statements are made that would benefit from more detailed treatment and discussion.

This title is undoubtedly superior to the recently published but disappointing Handbook of Psychiatric Genetics (Blum & Noble, 1996) (reviewed in American Journal of Human Genetics, 1998, 62, 999). However, at present the best user-friendly and balanced introduction to the field is provided by Seminars in Psychiatric Genetics (McGuffin et al, 1994; 2nd edn in preparation).

Psychiatric genetics (particularly molecular genetic investigation) is a rapidly moving field. All textbooks dealing with rapidly moving fields suffer from the problem of quickly becoming out of date. It is therefore important that the interested reader supplements perusal of a textbook with computer searches to access recent publications. Of particular interest in this case will be the Chromosome Workshop reports published annually following the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics.

REFERENCES

Blum, K. & Noble, E.P. (eds) (1996) Handbook of Psychiatric Genetics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

McGuffin, P., Owen, M. J., O'Donovan, M. C., et al (1994) Seminars in Psychiatric Genetics. London: Gaskell.

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