Gene therapy for psychiatric disorders.

There is no indication that gene therapy can be applied in psychiatric patients any time soon. However, there are several promising developments on the level of experimental neuroscience indicating that gene therapy approaches have an effect in animal models of several psychiatric disorders including drug addiction, affective disorders, psychoses and dementia, modifying behavioural parameters via interventions on the molecular and cellular level. However, before gene therapy in psychiatric disorders can be considered on the human level, not only neurobiological and technical problems need to be overcome, but also important ethical questions answered.