Reweighting UK Biobank corrects for pervasive selection bias due to volunteering.

Background: Biobanks typically rely on volunteer-based sampling. This results in large samples (power) at the cost of representativeness (bias). The problem of volunteer bias is debated.

Risk and Protective Factors of Lifetime Cocaine-Associated Chest Pain.

Cocaine users often present with repetitive events of cocaine-associated chest pain (CACP), clinically resembling acute coronary syndromes. The aim of the study is to describe the specific risk factors for CACP. Cocaine users ( = 316) were recruited for a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Genetic correlates of socio-economic status influence the pattern of shared heritability across mental health traits.

Epidemiological studies show high comorbidity between different mental health problems, indicating that individuals with a diagnosis of one disorder are more likely to develop other mental health problems. Genetic studies reveal substantial sharing of genetic factors across mental health traits. However, mental health is also genetically correlated with socio-economic status (SES), and it is therefore important to investigate and disentangle the genetic relationship between mental health and SES.

Post-GWAS analysis of six substance use traits improves the identification and functional interpretation of genetic risk loci.

Background: Little is known about the functional mechanisms through which genetic loci associated with substance use traits ascertain their effect. This study aims to identify and functionally annotate loci associated with substance use traits based on their role in genetic regulation of gene expression.

Methods: We evaluated expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTLs) from 13 brain regions and whole blood of the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database, and from whole blood of the Depression Genes and Networks (DGN) database.

Genetic heterogeneity in self-reported depressive symptoms identified through genetic analyses of the PHQ-9.

Background: Depression is a clinically heterogeneous disorder. Previous large-scale genetic studies of depression have explored genetic risk factors of depression case-control status or aggregated sums of depressive symptoms, ignoring possible clinical or genetic heterogeneity.

Methods: We analyse data from 148 752 subjects of white British ancestry in the UK Biobank who completed nine items of a self-rated measure of current depressive symptoms: the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).