Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes

Camiel M van der Laan^{1

2

3}, Hill F Ip⁴, Marijn Schipper⁵, Jouke-Jan Hottenga⁴, Beate St Pourcain^{6

7

8}, Tetyana Zayats^{9

10

11}, René Pool⁴, Eva M L Krapohl¹², Isabell Brikell¹³, María Soler Artigas^{14

15

16

17}, Judit Cabana-Domínguez^{14

15

16

17}, Natalia Llonga^{14

15

16

17}, Ilja M Nolte¹⁸, Koen Bolhuis¹⁹, Teemu Palviainen²⁰, Hadi Zafarmand^{21

22}, Scott Gordon²³, Fazil Aliev²⁴, S Alexandra Burt²⁵, Carol A Wang^{26

27}, Gretchen Saunders²⁸, Ville Karhunen^{29

30}, Daniel E Adkins^{31

32}, Richard Border³³, Roseann E Peterson^{34

35}, Joseph A Prinz³⁶, Elisabeth Thiering^{37

38}, Natàlia Vilor-Tejedor^{39

40

41

42}, Tarunveer S Ahluwalia^{43

44

45}, Andrea Allegrini¹², Kaili Rimfeld^{12

46}, Qi Chen¹³, Yi Lu¹³, Joanna Martin¹³, Rosa Bosch^{14

47}, Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga^{14

15

16

48}, Alexander Neumann¹⁹, Judith Ensink^{49

50}, Katrina L Grasby²³, José J Morosoli^{51

52

53}, Xiaoran Tong⁵⁴, Shelby Marrington⁵⁵, James G Scott^{56

57

58}, Andrey A Shabalin³², Robin Corley⁵⁹, Luke M Evans^{59

60}, Karen Sugden^{36

61}, Silvia Alemany^{14

15

16}, Lærke Sass⁴³, Rebecca Vinding^{43

62}, Erik A Ehli⁶³, Fiona A Hagenbeek^{4

20

64}, Eske M Derks⁶⁵, Henrik Larsson^{13

66}, Harold Snieder¹⁸, Charlotte Cecil^{19

67

68}, Alyce M Whipp²⁰, Tellervo Korhonen²⁰, Eero Vuoksimaa²⁰, Richard J Rose⁶⁹, André G Uitterlinden^{68

70

71}, Jan Haavik⁹, Jennifer R Harris⁷², Øyvind Helgeland⁷³, Stefan Johansson⁷⁴, Gun Peggy S Knudsen⁷², Pal Rasmus Njolstad⁷⁴, Qing Lu⁷⁵, Alina Rodriguez^{29

76

77

78}, Anjali K Henders⁷⁹, Abdullah Mamun⁸⁰, Jackob M Najman⁵⁵, Sandy Brown⁸¹, Christian Hopfer⁸², Kenneth Krauter⁸³, Chandra A Reynolds^{59

84

85}, Andrew Smolen⁵⁹, Michael Stallings^{59

85}, Sally Wadsworth⁵⁹, Tamara L Wall⁸¹, Lindon Eaves^{35

86}, Judy L Silberg^{35

86}, Allison Miller⁸⁷, Alexandra Havdahl^{88

89}, Sabrina Llop^{90

91}, Maria-Jose Lopez-Espinosa^{90

91

92}, Klaus Bønnelykke^{43

62}, Jordi Sunyer^{93

94

95}, Louise Arseneault⁹⁶, Marie Standl³⁷, Joachim Heinrich^{37

97

98}, Joseph Boden⁹⁹, John Pearson¹⁰⁰, John Horwood⁹⁹, Martin Kennedy⁸⁷, Richie Poulton¹⁰¹, Hermine H Maes^{35

86

102}, John Hewitt^{59

85}, William E Copeland¹⁰³, Christel M Middeldorp^{49

50

56

57

64

104

105}, Gail M Williams⁵⁵, Naomi Wray^{79

106}, Marjo-Riitta Järvelin^{29

30

107}, Matt McGue²⁸, William Iacono²⁸, Avshalom Caspi^{36

85

96

108}, Terrie E Moffitt^{85

96

108}, Andrew J O Whitehouse¹⁰⁹, Craig E Pennell^{26

27}, Kelly L Klump²⁵, Chang Jiang⁷⁵, Danielle M Dick^{24

86

110

111}, Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud^{85

112}, Nicholas G Martin²³, Sarah E Medland^{23

53

113}, Tanja Vrijkotte^{64

104

114}, Jaakko Kaprio^{20

115}, Henning Tiemeier^{19

116}, George Davey Smith^{6

117}, Catharina A Hartman¹¹⁸, Albertine J Oldehinkel¹¹⁸, Miquel Casas^{47

48

119

120}, Marta Ribasés^{14

15

16

17}, Paul Lichtenstein¹³, Sebastian Lundström^{121

122}, Robert Plomin¹², Meike Bartels^{4

64}, Michel G Nivard^{4

6}, Dorret I Boomsma^{4

5

64

104}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. c.m.vanderlaan@uu.nl.
² Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. c.m.vanderlaan@uu.nl.
³ Department of Methodology and Statistics, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands. c.m.vanderlaan@uu.nl.
⁴ Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Complex Trait Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁷ Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁸ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁹ K.G. Jebsen Centre for Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
¹⁰ Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹ Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹² Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
¹³ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁴ Biomedical Network Research Centre on Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Mental Health, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁶ Psychiatric Genetics Unit, Group of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addiction, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁷ Department of Genetics, Microbiology, and Statistics, Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁸ Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
¹⁹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
²⁰ Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), HiLife, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
²¹ Department of Public Health, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
²² Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
²³ QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
²⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
²⁵ Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
²⁶ School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
²⁷ Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
²⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
²⁹ MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
³⁰ Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
³¹ Department of Sociology, College of Social and Behavioral Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
³² Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
³³ Departments of Neurology and Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
³⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
³⁶ Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
³⁷ Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München-German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.
³⁸ Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Division of Metabolic Diseases and Nutritional Medicine, Munich, Germany.
³⁹ BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation (FPM), Barcelona, Spain.
⁴⁰ Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴¹ Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴² Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijgmegen, the Netherlands.
⁴³ COPSAC, Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴⁴ Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Herlev, Denmark.
⁴⁵ The Bioinformatics Center, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴⁶ Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK.
⁴⁷ SJD MIND Schools Program, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain.
⁴⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴⁹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵⁰ Levvel, Academic Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵¹ Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
⁵² Mental Health and Neuroscience Research Program, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵³ School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁴ Center for Innovation in Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
⁵⁵ School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁶ Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁷ Child and Youth Mental Health Service, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁸ Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Wacol, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁹ Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁶⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁶¹ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁶² Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁶³ Avera McKennan Hospital, Sioux Falls, SD, USA.
⁶⁴ Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶⁵ Translational Neurogenomics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁶⁶ School of Medical Sciences, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden.
⁶⁷ Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
⁶⁸ Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶⁹ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
⁷⁰ Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁷¹ Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)-sponsored Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA), Leiden, the Netherlands.
⁷² Centre for Fertility and Health, The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁷³ Department of Genetics and Bioinformatics, Division of Health Data and Digitalization, The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
⁷⁴ Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
⁷⁵ Department of Biostatistics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁷⁶ Anglia Ruskin University, School of Allied Health and Social Care, Chelmsford, UK.
⁷⁷ A*STAR, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Institute of Human Development and Potential, Singapore, Singapore.
⁷⁸ Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
⁷⁹ Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁸⁰ Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁸¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁸² University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA.
⁸³ Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸⁴ Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁸⁵ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸⁶ Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
⁸⁷ Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, and Carney Centre for Pharmacogenomics, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.
⁸⁸ PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁸⁹ Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
⁹⁰ Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO-Universitat Jaume I-Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
⁹¹ Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
⁹² Department of Nursing, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
⁹³ ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain.
⁹⁴ Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
⁹⁵ CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
⁹⁶ Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
⁹⁷ Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University of Munich Medical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
⁹⁸ Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁹⁹ Christchurch Health and Development Study, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.
¹⁰⁰ Biostatistics and Computational Biology Unit, Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.
¹⁰¹ Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
¹⁰² Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
¹⁰³ Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA.
¹⁰⁴ Amsterdam Reproduction and Development Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹⁰⁵ Arkin Mental Health Care, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹⁰⁶ Queensland Brain Institute, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
¹⁰⁷ Department of Life Sciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, London, UK.
¹⁰⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
¹⁰⁹ The Kids Research Institute Australia, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
¹¹⁰ Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
¹¹¹ College Behavioral and Emotional Health Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
¹¹² Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
¹¹³ School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
¹¹⁴ Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹¹⁵ Department of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹¹⁶ Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹⁷ Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
¹¹⁸ Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
¹¹⁹ Fundació d'Investigació Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain.
¹²⁰ Instituto Para el Desarrollo de Terapias Avanzadas en Neurociencias (IDETAN), Barcelona, Spain.
¹²¹ Region Skåne, Psychiatry, Habilitation & Aid, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Malmö, Sweden.
¹²² Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

PMID: 40962958
DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02295-y

Meta-Analysis

Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes

Camiel M van der Laan et al. Nat Genet. 2025 Oct.

. 2025 Oct;57(10):2427-2435.

doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02295-y. Epub 2025 Sep 17.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. c.m.vanderlaan@uu.nl.
² Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. c.m.vanderlaan@uu.nl.
³ Department of Methodology and Statistics, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands. c.m.vanderlaan@uu.nl.
⁴ Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Complex Trait Genetics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶ MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁷ Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁸ Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁹ K.G. Jebsen Centre for Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
¹⁰ Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹ Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
¹² Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
¹³ Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
¹⁴ Biomedical Network Research Centre on Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Mental Health, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁶ Psychiatric Genetics Unit, Group of Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addiction, Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁷ Department of Genetics, Microbiology, and Statistics, Faculty of Biology, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain.
¹⁸ Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
¹⁹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
²⁰ Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), HiLife, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
²¹ Department of Public Health, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
²² Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
²³ QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
²⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
²⁵ Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
²⁶ School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
²⁷ Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
²⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
²⁹ MRC Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
³⁰ Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
³¹ Department of Sociology, College of Social and Behavioral Science, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
³² Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
³³ Departments of Neurology and Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
³⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
³⁶ Center for Genomic and Computational Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
³⁷ Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München-German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.
³⁸ Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Division of Metabolic Diseases and Nutritional Medicine, Munich, Germany.
³⁹ BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center, Pasqual Maragall Foundation (FPM), Barcelona, Spain.
⁴⁰ Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴¹ Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴² Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijgmegen, the Netherlands.
⁴³ COPSAC, Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴⁴ Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Herlev, Denmark.
⁴⁵ The Bioinformatics Center, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴⁶ Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK.
⁴⁷ SJD MIND Schools Program, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain.
⁴⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Legal Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴⁹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵⁰ Levvel, Academic Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵¹ Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
⁵² Mental Health and Neuroscience Research Program, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵³ School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁴ Center for Innovation in Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
⁵⁵ School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁶ Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁷ Child and Youth Mental Health Service, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁸ Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Wacol, Queensland, Australia.
⁵⁹ Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁶⁰ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁶¹ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
⁶² Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁶³ Avera McKennan Hospital, Sioux Falls, SD, USA.
⁶⁴ Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶⁵ Translational Neurogenomics Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁶⁶ School of Medical Sciences, Orebro University, Orebro, Sweden.
⁶⁷ Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
⁶⁸ Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁶⁹ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
⁷⁰ Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
⁷¹ Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)-sponsored Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA), Leiden, the Netherlands.
⁷² Centre for Fertility and Health, The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁷³ Department of Genetics and Bioinformatics, Division of Health Data and Digitalization, The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
⁷⁴ Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
⁷⁵ Department of Biostatistics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
⁷⁶ Anglia Ruskin University, School of Allied Health and Social Care, Chelmsford, UK.
⁷⁷ A*STAR, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Institute of Human Development and Potential, Singapore, Singapore.
⁷⁸ Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
⁷⁹ Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁸⁰ Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
⁸¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁸² University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA.
⁸³ Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸⁴ Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁸⁵ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸⁶ Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
⁸⁷ Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, and Carney Centre for Pharmacogenomics, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.
⁸⁸ PsychGen Centre for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁸⁹ Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
⁹⁰ Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, FISABIO-Universitat Jaume I-Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
⁹¹ Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
⁹² Department of Nursing, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
⁹³ ISGlobal, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain.
⁹⁴ Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain.
⁹⁵ CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
⁹⁶ Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
⁹⁷ Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University of Munich Medical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
⁹⁸ Allergy and Lung Health Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
⁹⁹ Christchurch Health and Development Study, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.
¹⁰⁰ Biostatistics and Computational Biology Unit, Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand.
¹⁰¹ Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
¹⁰² Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
¹⁰³ Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA.
¹⁰⁴ Amsterdam Reproduction and Development Research Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹⁰⁵ Arkin Mental Health Care, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹⁰⁶ Queensland Brain Institute, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
¹⁰⁷ Department of Life Sciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, London, UK.
¹⁰⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
¹⁰⁹ The Kids Research Institute Australia, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
¹¹⁰ Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
¹¹¹ College Behavioral and Emotional Health Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
¹¹² Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
¹¹³ School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
¹¹⁴ Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
¹¹⁵ Department of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹¹⁶ Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹⁷ Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
¹¹⁸ Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation (ICPE), Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
¹¹⁹ Fundació d'Investigació Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain.
¹²⁰ Instituto Para el Desarrollo de Terapias Avanzadas en Neurociencias (IDETAN), Barcelona, Spain.
¹²¹ Region Skåne, Psychiatry, Habilitation & Aid, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Malmö, Sweden.
¹²² Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

PMID: 40962958
DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02295-y

Erratum in

Publisher Correction: Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes.
van der Laan CM, Ip HF, Schipper M, Hottenga JJ, St Pourcain B, Zayats T, Pool R, Krapohl EML, Brikell I, Soler Artigas M, Cabana-Domínguez J, Llonga N, Nolte IM, Bolhuis K, Palviainen T, Zafarmand H, Gordon S, Aliev F, Burt SA, Wang CA, Saunders G, Karhunen V, Adkins DE, Border R, Peterson RE, Prinz JA, Thiering E, Vilor-Tejedor N, Ahluwalia TS, Allegrini A, Rimfeld K, Chen Q, Lu Y, Martin J, Bosch R, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Neumann A, Ensink J, Grasby KL, Morosoli JJ, Tong X, Marrington S, Scott JG, Shabalin AA, Corley R, Evans LM, Sugden K, Alemany S, Sass L, Vinding R, Ehli EA, Hagenbeek FA, Derks EM, Larsson H, Snieder H, Cecil C, Whipp AM, Korhonen T, Vuoksimaa E, Rose RJ, Uitterlinden AG, Haavik J, Harris JR, Helgeland Ø, Johansson S, Knudsen GPS, Njolstad PR, Lu Q, Rodriguez A, Henders AK, Mamun A, Najman JM, Brown S, Hopfer C, Krauter K, Reynolds CA, Smolen A, Stallings M, Wadsworth S, Wall TL, Eaves L, Silberg JL, Miller A, Havdahl A, Llop S, Lopez-Espinosa MJ, Bønnelykke K, Sunyer J, Arseneault L, Standl M, Heinrich J, Boden J, Pearson J, Horwood J, Kennedy M, Poulton R, Maes HH, Hewitt J, Copeland WE, Middeldorp CM, Williams GM, Wray N, Järvelin MR, McGue M, Iacono W, Caspi … See abstract for full author list ➔ van der Laan CM, et al. Nat Genet. 2025 Oct;57(10):2604. doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02383-z. Nat Genet. 2025. PMID: 41023451 No abstract available.

Abstract

We performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis (GWAMA) of 290,134 attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom measures of 70,953 unique individuals from multiple raters, ages and instruments (ADHD_SYMP). Next, we meta-analyzed the results with a study of ADHD diagnosis (ADHD_OVERALL). ADHD_SYMP returned no genome-wide significant variants. We show that the combined ADHD_OVERALL GWAMA identified 39 independent loci, of which 17 were new. Using a recently developed gene-mapping method, Fine-mapped Locus Assessment Model of Effector genes, we identified 22 potential ADHD effector genes implicating several new biological processes and pathways. Moderate negative genetic correlations (r_g < -0.40) were observed with multiple cognitive traits. In three cohorts, polygenic scores (PGSs) based on ADHD_OVERALL outperformed PGSs based on ADHD symptoms and diagnosis alone. Our findings support the notion that clinical ADHD is at the extreme end of a continuous liability that is indexed by ADHD symptoms. We show that including ADHD symptom counts helps to identify new genes implicated in ADHD.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: J.A.R.-Q. was on the speakers’ bureau and/or acted as a consultant for Biogen, Idorsia, Casen-Recordati, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Takeda, Bial, Sincrolab, Neuraxpharm, BMS, Medice, Rubió, Uriach, Technofarma and Raffo in the last 3 years. He also received travel awards (air tickets and hotel) for taking part in psychiatric meetings from Idorsia, Janssen-Cilag, Rubió, Takeda, Bial and Medice. The Department of Psychiatry, chaired by him, received unrestricted educational and research support from the following companies in the last 3 years: Exeltis, Idorsia, Janssen-Cilag, Neuraxpharm, Oryzon, Roche, Probitas and Rubió. M.C. has received fees to give talks for TAKEDA and Laboratorios RUBIO. The other authors declare no competing interests.

References

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Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes

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Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes

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Medical