Causes of mental illness

Mental illness comes from a complex interaction of body and mind. Causes can range from inherited genetics, physical injury or disease, the emotional weight of life’s challenges on a person — or some combination of those and more.

Take this lesson to understand the causes of mental illness. You’ll explore what scientists know about the genetic, biological, and environmental risk factors for mental illness — and what science is still figuring out. You’ll also learn about protective factors that may reduce the impact of mental illness on your family.

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Mental illness comes from a complex interaction of body and mind. Causes can range from inherited genetics, physical injury or disease, the emotional weight of life’s challenges on a person — or some combination of those and more.

Take this lesson to understand the causes of mental illness. You’ll explore what scientists know about the genetic, biological, and environmental risk factors for mental illness — and what science is still figuring out. You’ll also learn about protective factors that may reduce the impact of mental illness on your family.

Resources

• Activity
Your brain is core to all of your thoughts, all of your actions and most fundame...
• Activity
Where do these illnesses come from and what causes this to happen?
• 3rd-party resource
Statistics and definitions on severe mental illness and mental illness overall i...
• 3rd-party resource
Well-illustrated summary of what causes psychosis experiences and related mental...
Coursera • External resource
Intensive course which explore the social context and historical evolution of ho...
Al Powers & Phil Corlett • 3rd-party resource
Podcast from leading psychosis researchers Powers, Corlett, and Mathys explainin...
PBS • Article
Nova article describing some of the latest research about hearing voices (Powers...
Mental Health America (MHA) • 3rd-party resource
Brief helpful information to understand mental health (see flowchart on bottom t...
SAMHSA • 3rd-party resource
Brief and helpful information about living with SMI including personal videos an...
APA • Article
Research summary explaining why genetic testing to tailor psychiatric prescripti...
SAMHSA • Article
A helpful alternative way to think about stress-vulnerability factors in causing...
Stephen Wood • Article
A summary of Howes & Murray’s scientific research on the dopamine hypothesis and...
NAMI • Video
NAMI’s video resources organized by specific diagnoses.