This report has important implications for psychiatric genetics. Although the results showed continuity, genetic and environmental changes were also revealed. Psychiatric genetics often assumes a static genome, and the findings of the current study suggest that, to a small extent, this assumption is incorrect. Therefore, gene identification studies need to take into consideration the age of the sample, and that genes (and environments) found to be important within one age group may not be important in another. Another important implication is the increasing specificity of genetic effects. It is unclear what neurobiological or psychological processes are responsible for the increasing specialization of genetic effects.
