Structural brain imaging studies offer clues about the effects of the shared genetic etiology among neuropsychiatric disorders

• Published in: Molecular psychiatry Vol. 26; no. 6; pp. 2101 - 2110
• Main Authors: Radonjić, Nevena V., Hess, Jonathan L., Rovira, Paula, Andreassen, Ole, Buitelaar, Jan K., Ching, Christopher R. K., Franke, Barbara, Hoogman, Martine, Jahanshad, Neda, McDonald, Carrie, Schmaal, Lianne, Sisodiya, Sanjay M., Stein, Dan J., van den Heuvel, Odile A., van Erp, Theo G. M., van Rooij, Daan, Veltman, Dick J., Thompson, Paul, Faraone, Stephen V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.06.2021; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45; 45/43; 59; 59/57; 631/208; 692/699; Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Autism; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Psychology; Bipolar disorder; Comparative analysis; Epilepsy; Etiology; Genetic aspects; Genetic diversity; Genetic variation; Health aspects; Hyperactivity; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental illness; Neurogenetics; Neuroimaging; Neurosciences; Obsessive compulsive disorder; Pharmacotherapy; Phenotypes; Physiological aspects; Psychiatric research; Psychiatry; Schizophrenia; Systematic review; United States
• ISSN: 1359-4184; 1476-5578
• DOI: 10.1038/s41380-020-01002-z

Genomewide association studies have found significant genetic correlations among many neuropsychiatric disorders. In contrast, we know much less about the degree to which structural brain alterations are similar among disorders and, if so, the degree to which such similarities have a genetic etiology. From the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium, we acquired standardized mean differences (SMDs) in regional brain volume and cortical thickness between cases and controls. We had data on 41 brain regions for: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), bipolar disorder (BD), epilepsy, major depressive disorder (MDD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and schizophrenia (SCZ). These data had been derived from 24,360 patients and 37,425 controls. The SMDs were significantly correlated between SCZ and BD, OCD, MDD, and ASD. MDD was positively correlated with BD and OCD. BD was positively correlated with OCD and negatively correlated with ADHD. These pairwise correlations among disorders were correlated with the corresponding pairwise correlations among disorders derived from genomewide association studies ( r  = 0.494). Our results show substantial similarities in sMRI phenotypes among neuropsychiatric disorders and suggest that these similarities are accounted for, in part, by corresponding similarities in common genetic variant architectures.