"To identify these multi-purpose [pleiotropic] gene variants, the researchers used a technique called genome-wide association to analyze genetic data from 494,162 healthy control subjects and 232,964 people diagnosed with at least one of eight common psychiatric disorders. The analysis identified 109 gene variants that affect the risk for more than one psychiatric disorder.
Certain disorders shared many variants, allowing the researchers to divide the conditions into three groups of genetically-related conditions: disorders characterized by compulsive behaviors (anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder and, to a lesser extent, Tourette syndrome); mood and psychotic disorders (bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia); and early-onset neurodevelopmental disorders (autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and Tourette syndrome). The researchers also found evidence that genes associated with multiple disorders show increased expression beginning in the second trimester of pregnancy and appear to play an important role in brain development"
Largest study of its kind reveals that many psychiatric disorders arise from common genes
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