There are profound cross-ethnic and cross-cultural variations in prevalence of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic depressive disease. Given the genetic pleiotropy and heterogeneity coupled with limited understanding of their influence on etio-pathogenesis of psychiatric conditions, there is an increasing need for determining intermediate markers for psychiatric disorders, which share a collective burden of 3–5% in general population. Psychiatric genetic research in Asia has only recently begun to emerge.