Abstracts for the IXth World Congress ofPsychiatric Genetics

Hyatt Regency at Union Station, Saint Louis, MissouriOctober 6±10, 2001

Sponsored by the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics

Program Committee Chairperson:Richard Todd, M.D., St. Louis, Missouri

Abstracts Organized and Edited by:Carey Ford Paparozzi, B.A. & Lynn E. Delisi, M.D., New York, NY

American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics) 105:560±646 (2001)

IXth World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics,St. Louis, 6±10 October, 2001

Sponsored by the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics

INTRODUCTION

This World Congress represents the 9th in a seriesof international meetings which are now hosted bythe International Society of Psychiatric Genetics.Since its formal organization in 1992 the Society haspromoted the ethical investigation of genetic factorswhich contribute to the origins, course and treatmentof psychiatric disorders. The Society has taken abroad view of what may contribute to these goals byencompassing areas of interest from basic neurobiol-ogy, model systems and population genetics tohuman genetic linkage and association, bioinfor-matics and statistical genetics. The last year hasseen major advancements in many of these asso-ciated areas, including most notably the publicationof the initial drafts of the human genomicDNA sequence. The theme of the 2001 WorldCongress is on the potential interface of the growing®eld of psychiatric genetics with new ®ndings andapproaches from the areas of genome sequencingprojects, development, neurobiology and population/evolutionary biology. This includes a number ofplenary speakers who are leaders in their respective®elds. This congress also introduces a new feature tothe meetings in the form of technical workshopsoccurring on the ®rst day. Workshops for this yearcover the areas of bioinformatics and high through-put genotyping. The submission of abstracts for oraland poster presentations indicates the changing

interest areas within the Society. This includes notonly many submissions to the main-stay areas ofschizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder and alcohol-ism, but growth of submissions in areas of early onsetdisorders such as autism and attention de®cit/hyperactivity disorder. Additionally, we've seen amarked growth in abstracts related to pharmacoge-netics.

The mounting of any international meetingrequires the contributions of a diverse group ofindividuals both within and outside of our parentorganization. I particularly want to thank membersof the program committee and members of ConferonInc. for their contributions to the development of theprogram and associated activities. Particular thanksare due to Drs. Lynn DeLisi, Kelly Botteron, JimHudziak, and Ted Reich for the sessioning ofabstracts and posters and to Ms. Janice Cole andMs. Carey Ford Paparozzi for administrative assis-tance.

Future Congresses will be held in October 2002(Brussels) and October 2003 (Montreal). Informationabout future meetings and related issues will beposted on the International Society of PsychiatricGeneticswebsite: www/ispg.net.

Richard D. Todd, Ph.D., M.D.Chairman, ISPG 2001 Program Committee