Insights into attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder from recent genetic studies

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common and highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD). In this narrative review, we summarize recent advances in quantitative and molecular genetic research from the past 5-10 years. Combined with large-scale international collaboration, these advances have resulted in fast-paced progress in understanding the etiology of ADHD and how genetic risk factors map on to clinical heterogeneity. Studies are converging on a number of key insights. First, ADHD is a highly polygenic NDD with a complex genetic architecture encompassing risk variants across the spectrum of allelic frequencies, which are implicated in neurobiological processes. Second, genetic studies strongly suggest that ADHD diagnosis shares a large proportion of genetic risks with continuously distributed traits of ADHD in the population, with shared genetic risks also seen across development and sex. Third, ADHD genetic risks are shared with those implicated in many other neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and somatic phenotypes. As sample sizes and the diversity of genetic studies continue to increase through international collaborative efforts, we anticipate further success with gene discovery, characterization of how the ADHD phenotype relates to other human traits and growing potential to use genomic risk factors for understanding clinical trajectories and for precision medicine approaches.

Keywords: ADHD; GWAS; genetics; twin studies.