Kety Gets Award For Research On Chemical Link in Insanity

The Intra-Science Research Foundation last week announced that it had awarded its 1975 prize to Dr. Seymour F. Kety, professor of Psychiatry, for his "outstanding contributions to the biochemical understanding of mental disorders."

Kety's work helped reveal a link between mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic depression with chemical imbalances in the brain, the foundation said. It also indicated that the tendency towards these disorders may be hereditary.

Kety has been attending a Santa Monica, California conference of researchers held in his honor by the National Institute of Mental Health. Kety announced the results of his research in a lecture at the meeting.

Kety said that evidence for his discovery about mental disorders came from several observations including an observation that the tendency towards mental illness is seemingly more dominant in families that have a prior history of schizophrenia or manic depression.

This tendency implies a connection between mental illness and gene action, Kety said. Since gene action is chemical in nature, Kety said, a link between body chemistry and mental illness is indicated.