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Review
. 2019 Apr;24(4):562-575.
doi: 10.1038/s41380-018-0070-0. Epub 2018 Jun 11.

Genetics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Stephen V Faraone  1 , Henrik Larsson  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Genetics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Stephen V Faraone et al. Mol Psychiatry. 2019 Apr.

Abstract

Decades of research show that genes play an vital role in the etiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its comorbidity with other disorders. Family, twin, and adoption studies show that ADHD runs in families. ADHD's high heritability of 74% motivated the search for ADHD susceptibility genes. Genetic linkage studies show that the effects of DNA risk variants on ADHD must, individually, be very small. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated several genetic loci at the genome-wide level of statistical significance. These studies also show that about a third of ADHD's heritability is due to a polygenic component comprising many common variants each having small effects. From studies of copy number variants we have also learned that the rare insertions or deletions account for part of ADHD's heritability. These findings have implicated new biological pathways that may eventually have implications for treatment development.

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Conflict of interest statement

In the past year, SVF received income, potential income, travel expenses continuing education support and/or research support from Lundbeck, KenPharm, Rhodes, Arbor, Ironshore, Shire, Akili Interactive Labs, CogCubed, Alcobra, VAYA, Sunovion, Genomind, and NeuroLifeSciences. With his institution, he has US patent US20130217707 A1 for the use of sodium−hydrogen exchange inhibitors in the treatment of ADHD. HL has served as a speaker for Eli-Lilly and Shire and has received research grants from Shire.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Heritability of ADHD from twin studies of ADHD diagnoses or symptom counts [–173]
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Heritability of ADHD in adults depends on method of diagnosis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Genetic correlations of ADHD with other traits based on LD score regression
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Prevalence of ADHD in rare genetic syndromes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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