New Research Has Potential to Change Psychiatric Treatment

Study sees shared genetics among psychiatric illnesses, which could simplify approaches by doctors
Posted Jan 16, 2026 11:04 AM CST
Psychiatric Illnesses May Be More Alike Than We Thought
   (Getty/Ildar Imashev)

The guidelines for psychiatric treatment may be in line for a significant update if a sweeping new study holds up. An international team analyzed DNA and medical data from more than 1 million people with one of 14 psychiatric diagnoses and discovered that the ailments share more overlapping genetic roots than previously thought, according to a news release at the University of Colorado Boulder. Rather than 14 separate entities, the genes clustered into five broader groups, the researchers report in Nature. As the Washington Post explains, that raises the possibility for more streamlined treatment—and perhaps fewer different pills.

  • Metaphor: "The kind of medical metaphor I'd offer is that if you went to the doctor with a runny nose, cough, and sore throat, and you got diagnosed with runny nose disorder, cough disorder, and sore throat disorder, and prescribed three separate pills, we would consider that sort of a medical misstep," study co-author Andrew Grotzinger of CU Boulder tells the Post.
  • Five groups: The five groups laid out in the study are substance-abuse disorders; compulsive disorders such as anorexia and Tourette's; "internalizing conditions" such as depression; neurodevelopment issues such as autism; and a fifth category that includes bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, which share 70% of genetic drivers. "Genetically, we saw that they are more similar than they are unique," says Grotzinger.

  • Future shift? The findings could eventually push psychiatry toward diagnoses grounded more in biology than in symptoms observed during office visits, but far more research will be needed before that happens. Still, "if you look at what the genes are telling us, it suggests that these different categories are more fundamentally related at the biological level than we had thought," says another co-author, Jordan Smoller of Mass General Brigham's Center for Precision Psychiatry in Boston.

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