Background: Accurate diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BPD) is difficult in clinical practice, with an average delay between symptom onset and diagnosis of about 7 years. A depressive episode often precedes the first manic episode, making it difficult to distinguish BPD from unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD).
Aims: We use genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) to identify differential genetic factors and to develop predictors based on polygenic risk scores (PRS) that may aid early differential diagnosis.
Objective: Specific modifiable factors (e.g., screen time [ST], sleep duration, physical activity, or social connections) are targets for reducing depression risk in adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The value of genetic information for improving the performance of clinical risk prediction models has yielded variable conclusions. Many methodological decisions have the potential to contribute to differential results. We performed multiple modeling experiments integrating clinical and demographic data from electronic health records (EHR) with genetic data to understand which decisions may affect performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychiatric disorders are highly comorbid, heritable, and genetically correlated [1-4]. The primary objective of cross-disorder psychiatric genetics research is to identify and characterize both the shared genetic factors that contribute to convergent disease etiologies and the unique genetic factors that distinguish between disorders [4, 5]. This information can illuminate the biological mechanisms underlying comorbid presentations of psychopathology, improve nosology and prediction of illness risk and trajectories, and aid the development of more effective and targeted interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThanks to methodological advances, large-scale data collections, and longitudinal designs, psychiatric neuroimaging is better equipped than ever to identify the neurobiological underpinnings of youth mental health problems. However, the complexity of such endeavors has become increasingly evident, as the field has been confronted by limited clinical relevance, inconsistent results, and small effect sizes. Some of these challenges parallel those historically encountered by psychiatric genetics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAMA Psychiatry
January 2025
Importance: Leveraging real-world clinical biobanks to investigate the associations between genetic and environmental risk factors for mental illness may help direct clinical screening efforts and evaluate the portability of polygenic scores across environmental contexts.
Objective: To examine the associations between sexual trauma, polygenic liability to mental health outcomes, and clinical diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder in a clinical biobank setting.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This genetic association study was conducted using clinical and genotyping data from 96 002 participants across hospital-linked biobanks located at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Nashville, Tennessee (including 58 262 individuals with high genetic similarity to the 1000 Genomes Project [1KG] Northern European from Utah reference population [1KG-EU-clustered] and 11 047 with high genetic similarity to the 1KG African-ancestry reference population of Yoruba in Ibadan, Nigeria [1KG-YRI-clustered]), and Mass General Brigham (MGB), Boston, Massachusetts (26 693 individuals with high genetic similarity to the combined European-ancestry superpopulation [1KG-EU-clustered]).
The protein glycome of individual cell types in the brain is unexplored, despite the critical function of these modifications in development and disease. In aggregate, the most abundant asparagine (N-) linked glycans in the adult brain are high mannose structures, and specifically ManGlcNAc (Man-5), which normally exits the ER for further processing in the Golgi. Mannose structures are uncommon in other organs and often overlooked or excluded in most studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenome-wide studies are yielding a growing catalog of common and rare variants that confer risk for psychopathology. However, despite representing unprecedented progress, emerging data also indicate that the full promise of psychiatric genetics-including understanding pathophysiology and improving personalized care-will not be fully realized by targeting traditional dichotomous diagnostic categories. The current article provides reflections on themes that emerged from a 2021 National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored conference convened to address strategies for the evolving field of psychiatric genetics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent in youth and generally characterized by psychiatric comorbidities. Secular trends in co-occurring diagnoses remain unclear, especially in healthcare settings. Using large-scale electronic health records data from a major U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Antidepressants are commonly prescribed medications in the United States, however, factors underlying response are poorly understood. Electronic health records (EHRs) provide a cost-effective way to create and test response algorithms on large, longitudinal cohorts. We describe a new antidepressant response algorithm, validation in two independent EHR databases, and genetic associations with antidepressant response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolygenic risk scores (PRS) continue to improve with novel methods and expanding genome-wide association studies. Healthcare and commercial laboratories are increasingly deploying PRS reports to patients, but it is unknown how the classification of high polygenic risk changes across individual PRS. Here, we assessed association and classification performance of cataloged PRS for three complex traits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci
September 2024
Background: Previous epidemiological research has linked posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with specific physical health problems, but the comprehensive landscape of medical conditions associated with PTSD remains uncharacterized. Electronic health records provide an opportunity to overcome clinical knowledge gaps and uncover associations with biological relevance that potentially vary by sex.
Methods: PTSD was defined among biobank participants ( = 145,959) in 3 major healthcare systems using 2 ICD code-based definitions: broad (≥1 PTSD or acute stress codes vs.