Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
- PMID: 30478444
- PMCID: PMC6481311
- DOI: 10.1038/s41588-018-0269-7
Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Abstract
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable childhood behavioral disorder affecting 5% of children and 2.5% of adults. Common genetic variants contribute substantially to ADHD susceptibility, but no variants have been robustly associated with ADHD. We report a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 20,183 individuals diagnosed with ADHD and 35,191 controls that identifies variants surpassing genome-wide significance in 12 independent loci, finding important new information about the underlying biology of ADHD. Associations are enriched in evolutionarily constrained genomic regions and loss-of-function intolerant genes and around brain-expressed regulatory marks. Analyses of three replication studies: a cohort of individuals diagnosed with ADHD, a self-reported ADHD sample and a meta-analysis of quantitative measures of ADHD symptoms in the population, support these findings while highlighting study-specific differences on genetic overlap with educational attainment. Strong concordance with GWAS of quantitative population measures of ADHD symptoms supports that clinical diagnosis of ADHD is an extreme expression of continuous heritable traits.
Conflict of interest statement
Competing Interests
In the past year, Dr. Faraone received income, potential income, travel expenses continuing education support and/or research support from Lundbeck, Rhodes, Arbor, KenPharm, 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. In previous years, he received support from: Shire, Neurovance, Alcobra, Otsuka, McNeil, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer and Eli Lilly. Dr. Faraone receives royalties from books published by Guilford Press: Straight Talk about Your Child’s Mental Health, Oxford University Press: Schizophrenia: The Facts and Elsevier: ADHD: Non-Pharmacologic Interventions. He is principal investigator of
Dr. Neale is a member of Deep Genomics Scientific Advisory Board and has received travel expenses from Illumina. He also serves as a consultant for Avanir and Trigeminal solutions.
Olafur O. Gudmundsson, G. Bragi Walters, Hreinn Stefansson and Kari Stefansson are employees of deCODE genetics/Amgen.
Nicholas Eriksson, Joyce Y Tung, and the 23andMe Research Team are employees of 23andMe, Inc., and hold stock or stock options in 23andMe.
Dr. Rohde has received honoraria, has been on the speakers' bureau/advisory board and/or has acted as a consultant for Eli-Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Medice and Shire in the last three years. He receives authorship royalties from Oxford Press and ArtMed. He also received travel award for taking part of 2015 WFADHD meeting from Shire. The ADHD and Juvenile Bipolar Disorder Outpatient Programs chaired by him received unrestricted educational and research support from the following pharmaceutical companies in the last three years: Eli-Lilly, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, and Shire.
Over the last three years Dr. Sonuga-Barke has received speaker fees, consultancy, research funding and conference support from Shire Pharma and speaker fees from Janssen Cilag. He has received consultancy fees from Neurotech solutions, Aarhus University, Copenhagen University and Berhanderling, Skolerne, Copenhagen, KU Leuven. Book royalties from OUP and Jessica Kingsley. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry for which his University receives financial support.
Dr. Franke has received educational speaking fees from Merz and Shire.
Dr. Schachar’s disclosures: ehave equity and advisory board, Ironshore Pharmaceuticals Advisory Board.
Dr. Reif has received a research grant from Medice, and speaker’s honorarium from Medice and Servier.
Dr. Haavik has received speaker fees from Shire, Lilly and Novartis.
Dr. Kranzler has been an advisory board member, consultant, or CME speaker for Alkermes, Indivior, and Lundbeck. He is also a member of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology’s Alcohol Clinical Trials Initiative, which was supported in the last three years by AbbVie, Alkermes, Ethypharm, Indivior, Lilly, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Arbor, and Amygdala Neurosciences.
Drs. Kranzler and Gelernter are named as inventors on PCT patent application #15/878,640 entitled: "Genotype-guided dosing of opioid agonists," filed January 24, 2018.
Dr Asherson received honoraria paid to King's College London by Shire, Flynn Pharma, Lilly, Janssen, Novartis and Lunbeck for research, speaker fees, education events, advisory board membership or consultancy.
Dr. Andreassen has received speaker fees from Lundbeck and Sunovion. Dr Kuntsi has received speaker’s honorarium from Medice; all funds are received by King’s College London and used for studies of ADHD.
Thomas Werge has acted as lecturer and scientific advisor to H. Lundbeck A/S
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Comment in
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First genetic risk loci for ADHD identified.Nat Rev Neurol. 2019 Jan;15(1):4. doi: 10.1038/s41582-018-0117-5. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019. PMID: 30531819 No abstract available.
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Risk loci for ADHD.Nat Rev Genet. 2019 Feb;20(2):69. doi: 10.1038/s41576-018-0084-0. Nat Rev Genet. 2019. PMID: 30532079 No abstract available.
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