The Intergenerational Transmission of Mental Health Problems: Identifying Causal Pathways and How to Interrupt Them

Mental health problems run in families, with evidence indicating this is partly for genetic reasons and partly because exposure to problems in close family members is detrimental to mental health. Understanding the processes behind parent-child mental health associations is complex and requires genetically informative datasets and advanced statistical methods. 

In my research I develop and apply these methods to distinguish genetic from environmental routes of transmission. In this fellowship I will build on prior work to assess to what extent treatment of parent mental health problems can reduce the chances of children developing problems, and vice versa. I will also incorporate personalised genetic risk scores into my work to identify people who are particularly susceptible/resilient to exposure to parent mental health problems . In these ways I hope to be able to influence policy surrounding investment in mental health treatment and advice offered to families with mental health issues.