The largest study of its kind so far shows that the eight most common psychiatric disorders have a common genetic structure. Researchers from iPSYCH and the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium are behind the new results, which could help to develop more precise diagnoses and improved treatment.

2019.12.12 | Helle Horskjær Hansen

Anders Børglum and colleges have analyzed genetic data from 494,162 healthy control subjects and 232,964 persons diagnosed with at least one of ​eight psychiatric disorders; autism, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia. Photo: Natasha Spencer, Total Shape.

Over the course of a year, one out of five Danes suffer a psychiatric disorder, and in general, psychiatric disorders are one of the biggest public health challenges in Denmark. A team of international researchers with contributions from Danish iPSYCH have now found more than one hundred genetic variants which affect the risk of suffering more than one psychiatric disorder. The results have just been published in the journal Cell.

“That we’ve identified genetic variants which influence the risk for more than one psychiatric disorder is an important step towards improved diagnosis and treatment of these disorders,” says Anders Børglum, who has headed the research team behind the study’s Danish contribution.

According to Anders Børglum, the results can tell us something about the extent to which these disorders have a common biology.

"Knowledge about how disorders are related on a biological level can help us classify and diagnose psychiatric disorders in a more precise way," he explains.

In order to identify these genetic variants, the researchers analysed genetic data from 494,162 healthy control subjects and 232,964 persons diagnosed with at least one of eight psychiatric disorders; autism, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia. The analysis found 109 genetic variants which affect the risk of suffering more than one psychiatric disorder.

An important discovery

Certain diagnoses had many genetic variants in common, which made it possible for the researchers to categorise three groups of genetically-related disorders; disorders characterised by compulsive behaviours such as anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and, to a lesser extent, Tourette syndrome; mood and psychotic disorders such as bipolar disorder, severe depression and schizophrenia; and early-onset neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, ADHD and Tourette syndrome.

The study also identified several genetic variants that had a particularly widespread impact on the risk of a range of psychiatric disorders. This may turn out to be an important discovery in relation to preventing and treating psychiatric disorders.

“In so far as these genes can have broad-ranging effects, they could be potential targets for developing new treatments which may benefit multiple disorders,” says Anders Børglum before continuing: “As the same biological components are partly involved in the development of several of the disorders, treatment directed at these common components may be able to have an effect on all of the disorders."

Background for the results:

• The data set consists of genetic data from 494,162 healthy control subjects and 232,964 persons diagnosed with at least one of ​eight psychiatric disorders; autism, ADHD, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia.
• The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium.
• iPSYCH is primarily financed by the Lundbeck Foundation as well as the universities and university hospitals in Aarhus and Copenhagen.
• The scientific article “Genomic Relationships Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders”

Contact

Professor Anders Børglum
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
iPSYCH
Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine
anders@biomed.au.dk
Tel: (+45) 6020 2720