Genome-wide analyses of ADHD identify 27 risk loci, refine the genetic architecture and implicate several cognitive domains

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Ditte Demontis

Abstract

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder with a major genetic component. Here, we present a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of ADHD comprising 38,691 individuals with ADHD and 186,843 controls. We identified 27 genome-wide significant loci, highlighting 76 potential risk genes enriched among genes expressed particularly in early brain development. Overall, ADHD genetic risk was associated with several brain-specific neuronal subtypes and midbrain dopaminergic neurons. In exome-sequencing data from 17,896 individuals, we identified an increased load of rare protein-truncating variants in ADHD for a set of risk genes enriched with probable causal common variants, potentially implicating SORCS3 in ADHD by both common and rare variants. Bivariate Gaussian mixture modeling estimated that 84–98% of ADHD-influencing variants are shared with other psychiatric disorders. In addition, common-variant ADHD risk was associated with impaired complex cognition such as verbal reasoning and a range of executive functions, including attention.

Public information

Title:

Genome-wide analyses of ADHD identify 27 risk loci, refine the genetic architecture and implicate several cognitive domains

Authors:

Demontis, D., Walters, G.B., Athanasiadis, G. et al.

Journal:

Nature Genetics

Year:

2023

Url:

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01285-8