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Review
. 2025 May;57(5):1074-1088.
doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02127-z. Epub 2025 Apr 2.

Psychiatric genetics in the diverse landscape of Latin American populations

Estela M Bruxel #  1   2 Diego L Rovaris #  3 Sintia I Belangero  4   5 Gabriela Chavarría-Soley  6 Alfredo B Cuellar-Barboza  7   8 José J Martínez-Magaña  9   10 Sheila T Nagamatsu  9   10 Caroline M Nievergelt  11   12   13 Diana L Núñez-Ríos  9   10 Vanessa K Ota  4   5 Roseann E Peterson  14 Laura G Sloofman  15 Amy M Adams  16 Elinette Albino  17 Angel T Alvarado  18 Diego Andrade-Brito  9 Paola Y Arguello-Pascualli  19 Cibele E Bandeira  3 Claiton H D Bau  20   21 Cynthia M Bulik  22   23 Joseph D Buxbaum  15 Carolina Cappi  15 Nadia S Corral-Frias  24 Alejo Corrales  25 Fabiana Corsi-Zuelli  26 James J Crowley  27 Renata B Cupertino  11 Bruna S da Silva  28 Suzannah S De Almeida  15   29   30 Juan F De la Hoz  31   32 Diego A Forero  33 Gabriel R Fries  34 Joel Gelernter  9   10 Yeimy González-Giraldo  35 Eugenio H Grevet  36 Dorothy E Grice  15 Adriana Hernández-Garayua  9   10 John M Hettema  16 Agustín Ibáñez  37   38 Iuliana Ionita-Laza  39   40 Maria Claudia Lattig  41 Yago C Lima  3 Yi-Sian Lin  2 Sandra López-León  42   43 Camila M Loureiro  26 Verónica Martínez-Cerdeño  44 Gabriela A Martínez-Levy  45   46 Kyle Melin  47 Daniel Moreno-De-Luca  48 Carolina Muniz Carvalho  49 Ana Maria Olivares  50 Victor F Oliveira  3 Rafaella Ormond  51 Abraham A Palmer  11   12 Alana C Panzenhagen  52   53 Maria Rita Passos-Bueno  54 Qian Peng  55 Eduardo Pérez-Palma  56 Miguel L Prieto  57   58 Panos Roussos  30 Sandra Sanchez-Roige  11   12   13 Hernando Santamaría-García  59 Flávio M Shansis  60   61 Rachel R Sharp  62 Eric A Storch  63 Maria Eduarda A Tavares  20 Grace E Tietz  2 Bianca A Torres-Hernández  47 Luciana Tovo-Rodrigues  64 Pilar Trelles  65 Eva M Trujillo-ChiVacuan  66   67 Maria M Velásquez  68 Fernando Vera-Urbina  47 Georgios Voloudakis  30 Talia Wegman-Ostrosky  69 Jenny Zhen-Duan  70 Hang Zhou  9   10 Latin American Genomics ConsortiumMarcos L Santoro  51 Humberto Nicolini  71 Elizabeth G Atkinson  72   73 Paola Giusti-Rodríguez  74 Janitza L Montalvo-Ortiz  75   76   77
Collaborators, Affiliations
Review

Psychiatric genetics in the diverse landscape of Latin American populations

Estela M Bruxel et al. Nat Genet. 2025 May.

Abstract

Psychiatric disorders are highly heritable and polygenic, influenced by environmental factors and often comorbid. Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) through consortium efforts have identified genetic risk loci and revealed the underlying biology of psychiatric disorders and traits. However, over 85% of psychiatric GWAS participants are of European ancestry, limiting the applicability of these findings to non-European populations. Latin America and the Caribbean, regions marked by diverse genetic admixture, distinct environments and healthcare disparities, remain critically understudied in psychiatric genomics. This threatens access to precision psychiatry, where diversity is crucial for innovation and equity. This Review evaluates the current state and advancements in psychiatric genomics within Latin America and the Caribbean, discusses the prevalence and burden of psychiatric disorders, explores contributions to psychiatric GWASs from these regions and highlights methods that account for genetic diversity. We also identify existing gaps and challenges and propose recommendations to promote equity in psychiatric genomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: C.M.B. reports receiving royalties from Pearson Education. S.L.-L. is an employee of Novartis Pharma; the statements presented do not necessarily represent the position of the company. E.A.S. reports receiving research funding to his institution from the Ream Foundation, the International OCD Foundation and the NIH. He was a consultant for BrainsWay and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals in the past 12 months. He owns stock less than $5,000 in nView (for distribution of the Y-BOCS and the CY-BOCS). He receives book royalties from Elsevier, Wiley, Oxford, the American Psychological Association, Guildford, Springer, Routledge and Jessica Kingsley. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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