Worries about employment discrimination are also common (Meiser et al., 2005; Roberts et al., 2005; Wilde et al., 2010), shared by 65% of affective disorder patients and their family members (n=200) (Meiser et al., 2008), by 72% of unaffected persons in a genetic study (Wilhelm et al., 2009), and by 78% of psychiatrists at a CME course (Finn et al., 2005). Of note, GINA does not eliminate such concerns, since employers can still obtain information about genetic predispositions from post-employment physical examinations, Family Medical Leave Act requests, medical records of employees covered by self-insurance programs, and casual discussions of family histories. Psychiatrists attending the CME course also believed genetic testing could lead to lowered expectations for children carrying high-risk genes (63%), movement of research and clinical resources away from psychosocial therapies (52%), denial of resources to symptomatic patients who do not carry high-risk genes (36%), increased stigma (35%), and elimination of desirable traits through genetic selection against genes associated with mental illness (33%) (Finn et al., 2005).
