Associations between schizophrenia genetic risk, anxiety disorders and manic/hypomanic episode in a New Zealand longitudinal population cohort study

Richards, Alexander, Horwood, John, Boden, Joseph, Kennedy, Martin, Sellers, Ruth, Riglin, Lucy, Mistry, Sumit, Jones, Hannah, Smith, Daniel J., Zammit, Stanley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2647-9211, Owen, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4798-0862, O'Donovan, Michael C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7073-2379 and Harold, Gordon T. 2019. Associations between schizophrenia genetic risk, anxiety disorders and manic/hypomanic episode in a New Zealand longitudinal population cohort study. British Journal of Psychiatry 214 (2) , pp. 96-102. 10.1192/bjp.2018.227

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Abstract

Background Studies involving clinically recruited samples show that genetic liability to schizophrenia overlaps with that for several psychiatric disorders including bipolar disorder, major depression and, in a population study, anxiety disorder and negative symptoms in adolescence. Aims We examined whether, at a population level, association between schizophrenia liability and anxiety disorders continues into adulthood, for specific anxiety disorders and as a group. We explored in an epidemiologically based cohort the nature of adult psychopathology sharing liability to schizophrenia. Method Schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (PRSs) were calculated for 590 European-descent individuals from the Christchurch Health and Development Study. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between schizophrenia PRS and four anxiety disorders (social phobia, specific phobia, panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder), schizophrenia/schizophreniform disorder, manic/hypomanic episode, alcohol dependence, major depression, and – using linear regression – total number of anxiety disorders. A novel population-level association with hypomania was tested in a UK birth cohort (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children). Results Schizophrenia PRS was associated with total number of anxiety disorders and with generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder. We show a novel population-level association between schizophrenia PRS and manic/hypomanic episode. Conclusions The relationship between schizophrenia liability and anxiety disorders is not restricted to psychopathology in adolescence but is present in adulthood and specifically linked to generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder. We suggest that the association between schizophrenia liability and hypomanic/manic episodes found in clinical samples may not be due to bias.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI) Medicine MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG)
Additional Information:	ThisisanOpenAccess article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0007-1250
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 September 2018
Date of Acceptance:	18 September 2018
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2023 18:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/115012

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