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Meta-Analysis
. 2018 Apr:194:86-90.
doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2017.02.022. Epub 2017 Mar 8.

Genetic correlation between smoking behaviors and schizophrenia

Sarah M Hartz  1 , Amy C Horton  2 , Dana B Hancock  3 , Timothy B Baker  4 , Neil E Caporaso  5 , Li-Shiun Chen  2 , John E Hokanson  6 , Sharon M Lutz  6 , Mary L Marazita  7 , Daniel W McNeil  8 , Carlos N Pato  9 , Michele T Pato  9 , Eric O Johnson  3 , Laura J Bierut  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Genetic correlation between smoking behaviors and schizophrenia

Sarah M Hartz et al. Schizophr Res. 2018 Apr.

Abstract

Nicotine dependence is highly comorbid with schizophrenia, and the etiology of the comorbidity is unknown. To determine whether there is a genetic correlation of smoking behavior with schizophrenia, genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis results from five smoking phenotypes (ever/never smoker (N=74,035), age of onset of smoking (N=28,647), cigarettes smoked per day (CPD, N=38,860), nicotine dependence (N=10,666), and current/former smoker (N=40,562)) were compared to GWAS meta-analysis results from schizophrenia (N=79,845) using linkage disequilibrium (LD) score regression. First, the SNP heritability (h2g) of each of the smoking phenotypes was computed using LD score regression (ever/never smoker h2g=0.08, age of onset of smoking h2g=0.06, CPD h2g=0.06, nicotine dependence h2g=0.15, current/former smoker h2g=0.07, p<0.001 for all phenotypes). The SNP heritability for nicotine dependence was statistically higher than the SNP heritability for the other smoking phenotypes (p<0.0005 for all two-way comparisons). Next, a statistically significant (p<0.05) genetic correlation was observed between schizophrenia and three of the five smoking phenotypes (nicotine dependence rg=0.14, CPD rg=0.12, and ever/never smoking rg=0.10). These results suggest that there is a component of common genetic variation that is shared between smoking behaviors and schizophrenia.

Keywords: Genetic correlation; Nicotine dependence; Schizophrenia.

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