Enhancing Discovery of Genetic Variants for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Through Integration of Quantitative Phenotypes and Trauma Exposure Information

Adam X Maihofer*, Karmel W Choi, Jonathan R I Coleman, Nikolaos P Daskalakis, Christy A Denckla, Elizabeth Ketema, Rajendra A Morey, Renato Polimanti, Andrew Ratanatharathorn, Katy Torres, Aliza P Wingo, Clement C Zai, Allison E Aiello, Lynn M Almli, Ananda B Amstadter, Soren B Andersen, Ole A Andreassen, Paul A Arbisi, Allison E Ashley-Koch, S Bryn AustinEsmina Avdibegović, Anders D Borglum, Dragan Babić, Marie Bækvad-Hansen, Dewleen G Baker, Jean C Beckham, Laura J Bierut, Jonathan I Bisson, Marco P Boks, Elizabeth A Bolger, Bekh Bradley, Meghan Brashear, Gerome Breen, Richard A Bryant, Angela C Bustamante, Jonas Bybjerg-Grauholm, Joseph R Calabrese, José M Caldas-de-Almeida, Chia-Yen Chen, Anders M Dale, Shareefa Dalvie, Jürgen Deckert, Douglas L Delahanty, Michelle F Dennis, Seth G Disner, Katharina Domschke, Laramie E Duncan, Alma Džubur Kulenović, Christopher R Erbes, Alexandra Evans, Lindsay A Farrer, Norah C Feeny, Janine D Flory, David Forbes, Carol E Franz, Sandro Galea, Melanie E Garrett, Aarti Gautam, Bizu Gelaye, Joel Gelernter, Elbert Geuze, Charles F Gillespie, Aferdita Goçi, Scott D Gordon, Guia Guffanti, Rasha Hammamieh, Michael A Hauser, Andrew C Heath, Sian M J Hemmings, David Michael Hougaard, Miro Jakovljević, Marti Jett, Eric Otto Johnson, Ian Jones, Tanja Jovanovic, Xue-Jun Qin, Karen-Inge Karstoft, Milissa L Kaufman, Ronald C Kessler, Alaptagin Khan, Nathan A Kimbrel, Anthony P King, Nastassja Koen, Henry R Kranzler, William S Kremen, Bruce R Lawford, Lauren A M Lebois, Catrin Lewis, Israel Liberzon, Sarah D Linnstaedt, Mark W Logue, Adriana Lori, Božo Lugonja, Jurjen J Luykx, Michael J Lyons, Jessica L Maples-Keller, Charles Marmar, Nicholas G Martin, Douglas Maurer, Matig R Mavissakalian, Alexander McFarlane, Regina E McGlinchey, Katie A McLaughlin, Samuel A McLean, Divya Mehta, Rebecca Mellor, Vasiliki Michopoulos, William Milberg, Mark W Miller, Charles Phillip Morris, Ole Mors, Preben B Mortensen, Elliot C Nelson, Merete Nordentoft, Sonya B Norman, Meaghan O'Donnell, Holly K Orcutt, Matthew S Panizzon, Edward S Peters, Alan L Peterson, Matthew Peverill, Robert H Pietrzak, Melissa A Polusny, John P Rice, Victoria B Risbrough, Andrea L Roberts, Alex O Rothbaum, Barbara O Rothbaum, Peter Roy-Byrne, Kenneth J Ruggiero, Ariane Rung, Bart P F Rutten, Nancy L Saccone, Sixto E Sanchez, Dick Schijven, Soraya Seedat, Antonia V Seligowski, Julia S Seng, Christina M Sheerin, Derrick Silove, Alicia K Smith, Jordan W Smoller, Scott R Sponheim, Dan J Stein, Jennifer S Stevens, Martin H Teicher, Wesley K Thompson, Edward Trapido, Monica Uddin, Robert J Ursano, Leigh Luella van den Heuvel, Miranda Van Hooff, Eric Vermetten, Christiaan Vinkers, Joanne Voisey, Yunpeng Wang, Zhewu Wang, Thomas Werge, Michelle A Williams, Douglas E Williamson, Sherry Winternitz, Christiane Wolf, Erika J Wolf, Rachel Yehuda, Keith A Young, Ross McD Young, Hongyu Zhao, Lori A Zoellner, Magali Haas, Heather Lasseter, Allison C Provost, Rany M Salem, Jonathan Sebat, Richard A Shaffer, Tianying Wu, Stephan Ripke, Mark J Daly, Kerry J Ressler, Karestan C Koenen, Murray B Stein, Caroline M Nievergelt

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is heritable and a potential consequence of exposure to traumatic stress. Evidence suggests that a quantitative approach to PTSD phenotype measurement and incorporation of lifetime trauma exposure (LTE) information could enhance the discovery power of PTSD genome-wide association studies (GWASs).

METHODS: A GWAS on PTSD symptoms was performed in 51 cohorts followed by a fixed-effects meta-analysis (N = 182,199 European ancestry participants). A GWAS of LTE burden was performed in the UK Biobank cohort (N = 132,988). Genetic correlations were evaluated with linkage disequilibrium score regression. Multivariate analysis was performed using Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS. Functional mapping and annotation of leading loci was performed with FUMA. Replication was evaluated using the Million Veteran Program GWAS of PTSD total symptoms.

RESULTS: GWASs of PTSD symptoms and LTE burden identified 5 and 6 independent genome-wide significant loci, respectively. There was a 72% genetic correlation between PTSD and LTE. PTSD and LTE showed largely similar patterns of genetic correlation with other traits, albeit with some distinctions. Adjusting PTSD for LTE reduced PTSD heritability by 31%. Multivariate analysis of PTSD and LTE increased the effective sample size of the PTSD GWAS by 20% and identified 4 additional loci. Four of these 9 PTSD loci were independently replicated in the Million Veteran Program.

CONCLUSIONS: Through using a quantitative trait measure of PTSD, we identified novel risk loci not previously identified using prior case-control analyses. PTSD and LTE have a high genetic overlap that can be leveraged to increase discovery power through multivariate methods.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)626-636
Number of pages11
JournalBiological Psychiatry
Volume91
Issue number7
Early online date28 Sept 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2022

Keywords

  • GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION
  • LD SCORE REGRESSION
  • METAANALYSIS
  • PROLIFERATION
  • PSYCHIATRIC GENOMICS
  • PTSD
  • RISK-FACTORS
  • THOUSANDS

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