There is a compelling rationale for applying GWAS methods to very large samples for major psychiatric disorders. Given that the pathophysiologies of these disorders are unknown, genomewide studies provide an unbiased way to search the genome for causative factors. Many successful GWAS analyses have combined data from diverse clinical samples and SNP arrays to obtain replicable findings that point to new hypotheses about disease mechanisms and treatment targets. The first significant psychiatric GWAS findings have been reported (Table 5), using large collaborative samples. It is hoped that meta-analyses can produce multiple robust findings for psychiatric disorders.
