Psychiatric genomics: outlook for 2015 and challenges for 2020

- We summarize recent findings in psychiatric genomics and look ahead to 2015.
- We pose three major challenges for the field over the coming 5 years.
- We propose a strategy to address these major challenges.

The field of psychiatric genomics has recently experienced unprecedented advances that are beginning to reveal the genetic architecture of these enigmatic disorders. Here we provide a historical context for these findings and projections for where the field may be at the end of 2015. Of note, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium has entered a growth phase that will, by the end of 2015, result in a tripling of the number of psychiatric cases with GWAS data from ∼80 000 to ∼240 000. This is expected to accelerate gene discovery and provide greater insight into interrelationships between disorders. We conclude this commentary by posing three major challenges for the field over the next five years and proposing a three-stage approach to meet these challenges.