The Hunt For Cures: Mental Illness

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Such discoveries elate doctors like Barondes. "When you learn more about the biochemical pathways and mechanisms [controlled by these genes]," he says, "you'll be able to create drugs that can augment or block them." Furthermore, if researchers can spot individual genetic flaws, they may eventually be able to tailor regimens for individual patients while also factoring in differences based on age, sex and race.

For all these advances, however, most experts agree that future treatments won't be reduced simply to tinkering with brain chemistry. Doctors will still have to take into account personal relationships, job pressures and their patients' emotional well-being. As Dr. Keith Kramlinger of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., notes, "Most of the time, mental illness is probably a complex interaction of nature and nurture." In other words, you'll need both pills and palaver. And even that old Freudian couch may come in handy.