The Genetic Basis for the Increased Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome among Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Patients

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 20; p. 12504
• Main Authors: Misganaw, Burook, Yang, Ruoting, Gautam, Aarti, Muhie, Seid, Mellon, Synthia H, Wolkowitz, Owen M, Ressler, Kerry J, Doyle, 3rd, Francis J, Marmar, Charles R, Jett, Marti, Hammamieh, Rasha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19.10.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Blood Glucose; Blood pressure; Cholesterol; Chromosomes; Comorbidity; Correlation analysis; Estimates; Female; Genetic analysis; genetic correlation; Genomes; Glucose; High density lipoprotein; Humans; Insulin; Insulin resistance; Lipoproteins, HDL; Lipoproteins, LDL; Male; MDD (major depressive disorder); Mental disorders; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic syndrome; Metabolic Syndrome - complications; Metabolic Syndrome - epidemiology; Metabolic Syndrome - genetics; Obesity; Post traumatic stress disorder; Prevalence; Psychological stress; PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder); Statistical analysis; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - complications; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - epidemiology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - genetics; Trauma; Triglycerides; United States > US; metabolic syndrome; PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder); MDD (major depressive disorder); genetic correlation; obesity
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms232012504

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly debilitating psychiatric disorder that can be triggered by exposure to extreme trauma. Even if PTSD is primarily a psychiatric condition, it is also characterized by adverse somatic comorbidities. One illness commonly co-occurring with PTSD is Metabolic syndrome (MetS), which is defined by a set of health risk/resilience factors including obesity, elevated blood pressure, lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, higher low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, higher triglycerides, higher fasting blood glucose and insulin resistance. Here, phenotypic association between PTSD and components of MetS are tested on a military veteran cohort comprising chronic PTSD presentation ( = 310, 47% cases, 83% male). Consistent with previous observations, we found significant phenotypic correlation between the various components of MetS and PTSD severity scores. To examine if this observed symptom correlations stem from a shared genetic background, we conducted genetic correlation analysis using summary statistics data from large-scale genetic studies. Our results show robust positive genetic correlation between PTSD and MetS (r [SE] = 0.33 [0.056], = 4.74E-09), and obesity-related components of MetS (r = 0.25, SE = 0.05, = 6.4E-08). Prioritizing genomic regions with larger local genetic correlation implicate three significant loci. Overall, these findings show significant genetic overlap between PTSD and MetS, which may in part account for the markedly increased occurrence of MetS among PTSD patients.