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Clinical characteristics indexing genetic differences in schizophrenia: a systematic review

Molecular Psychiatry volume 28, pages 883–890 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Genome-wide studies are among the best available tools for identifying etiologic processes underlying psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. However, it is widely recognized that disorder heterogeneity may limit genetic insights. Identifying phenotypes indexing genetic differences among patients with non-affective psychotic disorder will improve genome-wide studies of these disorders. The present study systematically reviews existing literature to identify phenotypes that index genetic differences among patients with schizophrenia and related disorders. We systematically reviewed family-based studies and genome-wide molecular-genetic studies investigating whether phenotypic variation in patients with non-affective psychotic disorders (according to DSM or equivalent systems) was associated with genome-wide genetic variation (PROSPERO number CRD42019136169). An electronic database search of PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO from inception until 17 May 2019 resulted in 4347 published records. These records included a total of 813 relevant analyses from 264 articles. Two independent raters assessed the quality of all analyses based on methodologic rigor and power. We found moderate to strong evidence for a positive association between genetic/familial risk for non-affective psychosis and four phenotypes: early age of onset, negative/deficit symptoms, chronicity, and functional impairment. Female patients also tended to have more affected relatives. Severity of positive symptoms was not associated with genetic/familial risk for schizophrenia. We suggest that phenotypes with the most evidence for reflecting genetic difference in participating patients should be measured in future large-scale genetic studies of schizophrenia to improve power to discover causal variants and to facilitate discovery of modifying genetic variants.

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Fig. 1: Evidence from independent familial aggregation analyses relating features of schizophrenia with increased familial risk.

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Funding

This study is supported in part by the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. HVL was supported by a VENI grant from the Talent Programme of the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO-ZonMW 09150161810021).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jacob Taylor, Ymkje Anna de Vries.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jacob Taylor

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Ymkje Anna de Vries

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Interdisciplinary Center Psychopathology and Emotion regulation, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Hanna M. van Loo

  4. Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics and Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Kenneth S. Kendler

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  3. Hanna M. van Loo
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  4. Kenneth S. Kendler
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Contributions

JT, YADV, HVL and KSK conceived and designed the study. JT, YADV, and HVL performed the literature review and data coding. KSK oversaw the project. JT drafted the first version of the manuscript and YADV, HVL and KSK revised it. All authors reviewed and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Kenneth S. Kendler.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Taylor, J., de Vries, Y.A., van Loo, H.M. et al. Clinical characteristics indexing genetic differences in schizophrenia: a systematic review. Mol Psychiatry 28, 883–890 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01850-x

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