PubMed2004
BACKGROUND: The Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre was established by the Medical Research Council, in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, in 1994. METHOD AND RESULTS: The paper describes the origins of the Centre; the reasons why a new initiative was needed in the early 1990s; the thinking that led to the proposal for a major interdisciplinary research centre that integrated social, genetic and developmental research perspectives; the approach to international recruitment of world leaders; and the initial research accomplishments with respect to the basic goal of understanding nature-nurture interplay. CONCLUSIONS: The structure and interdisciplinary approach of the Centre have proved a success and the initial accomplishments have begun to meet the objectives of showing how nature-nurture interplay is involved in the development of psychiatric disorders.