The genetic dissection of complex traits has been frequently reviewed. 6,10–12 Box 1 provides an overview of the approaches and study design considerations. Advances in genetics are often yoked to technological advancements. Major approaches that have been informative in psychiatric genetics include assessment of: structural variation (SV) via karyotyping, array-based methods, and high-throughput sequencing (Tables 2 and S2); 13–16 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using highly multiplexed SNP arrays and, potentially, high-throughput sequencing (Table 3); 12,17–19 and high-throughput sequencing to uncover rare variants of relatively strong effect (perhaps arising de novo). 20,21 Genome-wide linkage and hypothesis-driven candidate gene association studies have also been conducted, and, as in many areas of biomedicine, with uncertain yield. 22–26
