Genetics linked to childhood emotional, social and psychiatric problems

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Emotional, social and psychiatric problems in children and adolescents have been linked to higher levels of genetic vulnerability for adult depression, say Australian researchers. The team made the finding while analysing the genetic data of more than 42,000 children and adolescents from seven cohorts across Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK. They also found a link with a higher genetic vulnerability for insomnia, neuroticism and body mass index. The researchers say that while genetic vulnerability is not accurate enough at this stage to make individual predictions about how a person’s symptoms will develop over time, it may one day help identify kids at risk for a relatively chronic course of illness, who could be targeted for treatment.

Journal/conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Link to research (DOI): 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0527

Organisation/s: The University of Queensland, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, The University of New South Wales, The University of Adelaide, The University of Sydney, Queensland University of technology, University of Melbourne

Funder: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA-ITN-2016) Innovative Training Networks (grant 721567 [Ms Akingbuwa, Dr Jami, Mrs Allegrini, Dr Karhunen, and Ms Diemer]). See paper for funding of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium

Media release

From: The University of Queensland

Genetics linked to childhood emotional, social and psychiatric problems

Emotional, social and psychiatric problems in children and adolescents have been linked to higher levels of genetic vulnerability for adult depression.

University of Queensland scientists made the finding while analysing the genetic data of more than 42,000 children and adolescents from seven cohorts across Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK.

Professor Christel Middeldorp said researchers have also found a link with a higher genetic vulnerability for insomnia, neuroticism and body mass index.

“By contrast, study participants with higher genetic scores for educational attainment and emotional wellbeing were found to have reduced childhood problems,” Professor Middeldorp said.

“We calculated a person’s level of genetic vulnerability by adding up the number of risk genes they had for a specific disorder or trait, and then made adjustments based on the level of importance of each gene.

“We found the relationship was mostly similar across ages.”

The results indicate there are shared genetic factors that affect a range of psychiatric and related traits across a person’s lifespan.

Professor Christel Middeldorp said around 50 per cent of children and adolescents with psychiatric problems, such as attention deficit hyper-activity disorder (ADHD), continue to experience mental disorders as adults, and are at risk of disengaging with their school community among other social and emotional problems.

“Our findings are important as they suggest this continuity between childhood and adult traits is partly explained by genetic risk,” Professor Christel Middeldorp said.

“Individuals at risk of being affected should be the focus of attention and targeted treatment..

“Although genetic vulnerability is not accurate enough at this stage to make individual predictions about how a person’s symptoms will develop over time, it may become so in the future, in combination with other risk factors.

“And, this may support precision medicine by providing targeted treatments to children at the highest risk of persistent emotional and social problems.”

The study was published in journal JAMA Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0527

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