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Genome-wide Association Meta-analysis of Childhood and Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2021.11.035Get rights and content
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Objective

To investigate the genetic architecture of internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence.

Method

In 22 cohorts, multiple univariate genome-wide association studies (GWASs) were performed using repeated assessments of internalizing symptoms, in a total of 64,561 children and adolescents between 3 and 18 years of age. Results were aggregated in meta-analyses that accounted for sample overlap, first using all available data, and then using subsets of measurements grouped by rater, age, and instrument.

Results

The meta-analysis of overall internalizing symptoms (INToverall) detected no genome-wide significant hits and showed low single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability (1.66%, 95% CI = 0.84-2.48%, neffective = 132,260). Stratified analyses indicated rater-based heterogeneity in genetic effects, with self-reported internalizing symptoms showing the highest heritability (5.63%, 95% CI = 3.08%-8.18%). The contribution of additive genetic effects on internalizing symptoms appeared to be stable over age, with overlapping estimates of SNP heritability from early childhood to adolescence. Genetic correlations were observed with adult anxiety, depression, and the well-being spectrum (|rg| > 0.70), as well as with insomnia, loneliness, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and childhood aggression (range |rg| = 0.42-0.60), whereas there were no robust associations with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or anorexia nervosa.

Conclusion

Genetic correlations indicate that childhood and adolescent internalizing symptoms share substantial genetic vulnerabilities with adult internalizing disorders and other childhood psychiatric traits, which could partially explain both the persistence of internalizing symptoms over time and the high comorbidity among childhood psychiatric traits. Reducing phenotypic heterogeneity in childhood samples will be key in paving the way to future GWAS success.

Key words

depression
anxiety
repeated measures
genetic epidemiology
molecular genetics

Cited by (0)

The study was supported by the Childhood and Adolescence Psychopathology: unravelling the complex etiology by a large Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Europe (CAPICE) project. CAPICE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions – MSCA-ITN-2016 – Innovative Training Networks, under grant agreement number 721567. Cohort-specific acknowledgements and funding information are described in Supplement 1, available online. The summary statistics for the overall meta-analysis can be downloaded from the GWAS Catalog (Study Accession: GCST90054778). Other summary statistics are available from the corresponding author upon request.

This work has been previously posted on a preprint server: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.11.20175026.

This work has been prospectively registered: https://osf.io/edas6.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: Bartels, Middeldorp

Data curation: Q. Lu, Adkins, Alemany, Ask, Chen, Corley, Ehli, Evans, Havdahl, Hagenbeek, Hakulinen, Henders, Hottenga, Korhonen, Mamun, Marrington, Neumann, Rimfeld, Rivadeneira, Silberg, van Beijsterveldt, Vuoksimaa, Whipp, Tong, Andreassen, Boomsma, Brown, Burt, Copeland, Dick, Harden, Harris, Hartman, Heinrich, Hewitt, Hopfer, Hypponen, Jarvelin, Kaprio, Keltikangas-Järvinen, Klump, Krauter, Kuja-Halkola, Larsson, Lehtimäki, Lichtenstein, Lundström, Maes, Magnus, Munafò, Najman, Njølstad, Oldehinkel, Pennell, Plomin, Reichborn-Kjennerud, Reynolds, Rose, Smolen, Snieder, Stallings, Standl, Sunyer, Tiemeier, Wadsworth, Wall, Whitehouse, Williams, Ystrøm

Formal analysis: Jami, Hammerschlag, Allegrini, Benyamin, Border, Diemer, Jiang, Karhunen, Y. Lu, Q. Lu, Mallard, Mishra, Nolte, Palviainen, Peterson, Sallis, Shabalin, Tate, Thiering, Vilor-Tejedor, Wang, Zhou

Funding acquisition: Middeldorp

Methodology: Jami, Hammerschlag, Ip, Nivard, Bartels, Middeldorp

Supervision: Hammerschlag, Bartels, Middeldorp

Writing – original draft: Jami, Bartels, Middeldorp

Writing – review and editing: Jami, Hammerschlag, Ip, Allegrini, Benyamin, Border, Diemer, Jiang, Karhunen, Y. Lu, Q. Lu, Mallard, Mishra, Nolte, Palviainen, Peterson, Sallis, Shabalin, Tate, Thiering, Vilor-Tejedor, Wang, Zhou, Adkins, Alemany, Ask, Chen, Corley, Ehli, Evans, Havdahl, Hagenbeek, Hakulinen, Henders, Hottenga, Korhonen, Mamun, Marrington, Neumann, Rimfeld, Rivadeneira, Silberg, van Beijsterveldt, Vuoksimaa, Whipp, Tong, Andreassen, Boomsma, Brown, Burt, Copeland, Dick, Harden, Harris, Hartman, Heinrich, Hewitt, Hopfer, Hypponen, Jarvelin, Kaprio, Keltikangas-Järvinen, Klump, Krauter, Kuja-Halkola, Larsson, Lehtimäki, Lichtenstein, Lundström, Maes, Magnus, Munafò, Najman, Njølstad, Oldehinkel, Pennell, Plomin, Reichborn-Kjennerud, Reynolds, Rose, Smolen, Snieder, Stallings, Standl, Sunyer, Tiemeier, Wadsworth, Wall, Whitehouse, Williams, Ystrøm, Nivard, Bartels, Middeldorp

Disclosure: Dr. Hammerschlag has received support from the Children’s Hospital Foundation and University of Queensland strategic funding. Dr. Border has received support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; MH100141 and MH016880). Dr. Peterson has received support from NIH (K01MH113848) and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant (28632). Drs. Sallis and Munafò have served as members of the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol (MC_UU_00011/7). Dr. Shabalin has received support from a NARSAD Young Investigator Award. Dr. Vilor-Tejedor has received support from a post-doctoral grant, Juan de la Cierva Programme (FJC2018-038085-I), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades – Spanish State Research Agency. Her research has received additional support of “la Caixa” Foundation (LCF/PR/GN17/10300004) and the Health Department of the Catalan Government (Health Research and Innovation Strategic Plan (PERIS) 2016-2020 grant# SLT002/16/00201). She has acknowledged the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to the EMBL partnership, the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa, and the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. Dr. Alemany has received support from a Juan de la Cierva – Incorporación Postdoctoral Contract from Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (IJCI-2017-34068). Dr. Corley has received support from NIH (DA011015, AG046938, and DA035804). Dr. Evans has received support from NIH (MH100141, DA044283, and AG046938). Dr. Havdahl has received support from the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority (2018059) at Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital. Dr. Rimfeld has received support from a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Andreassen has served as a consultant to HealthLytix and has received funding from the Research Council of Norway (223273 and 273291) and KG Jebsen Stiftelsen. Dr. Boomsma has received support from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Professor Award (PAH/5535). Dr. Brown has received support from NIH (DA035804). Dr. Copeland has received support from NIH (MH117559 and HD093651). Dr. Dick has received support from a mid-career award NIH K02 AA018755, NIH R01 AA015416 (Finnish Twin Study), P50 AA022537 (Alcohol Research Center), R25 AA027402 (VCU GREAT), and U10 AA008401 (COGA) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Drs. Hewitt, Krauter, Smolen, and Stallings have received support from NIH (DA011015 and DA035804). Dr. Hopfer has received support from NIH (DA042755, DA035804, and DA032555). Dr. Kaprio has received support from the Academy of Finland (grants 308248 and 312073). Dr. Larsson has served as a speaker for Evolan Pharma and Shire/Takeda and has received research grants from Shire/Takeda, all outside the submitted work. Dr. Lichtenstein has received support from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (project 2012-1678) and the Swedish Research Council (2016-1989). Dr. Lundström has received support from the Swedish Research Council (2017-02552). Dr. Magnus has received support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence scheme, project no 262700. Dr. Njølstad has received support from the European Research Council (AdG #293574), the Bergen Research Foundation (“Utilizing the Mother and Child Cohort and the Medical Birth Registry for Better Health”), Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen (Translational Medical Center), the University of Bergen, the Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO 240413), the Western Norway Regional Health Authority (Strategic Fund “Personalized Medicine for Children and Adults”), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (54741), and the Norwegian Diabetes Association. Dr. Plomin has received support from a MRC Professorship award (G19/2). Dr. Reichborn-Kjennerud has received support from the Research Council of Norway grant 274611. Drs. Reynolds and Wadsworth have received support from NIH (AG046938). Dr. Rose has received support from a NIH Research Scientist Award (AA-000145). Dr. Wall has received support from NIH (DA03580 and DA021905). Dr. Whitehouse has received support from an Investigator Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Dr. Ystrøm has received support from the Research Council of Norway (262177 and 288083). Dr. Nivard has received support from ZonMW (849200011), the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (531003014 937), a Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship, and a VENI grant awarded by NWO (VI.Veni.191G.030). Dr. Bartels has received support from an ERC Consolidator Grant (WELL-BEING 771057). Dr. Middeldorp has received support from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the University of Queensland, the Australian ADHD Professionals Association, and Clinical Excellence Queensland Queensland Health. She has served as associate editor of the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B. Ms. Jami has received support from an Academy Ter Meulen grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ms. Hagenbeek and Mr. Ip have received support from the Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies project (ACTION). ACTION received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no602768. Drs. Allegrini, Benyamin, Diemer, Karhunen, Y. Lu, Q. Lu, Mishra, Nolte, Thiering, Zhou, Adkins, Ask, Chen, Ehli, Hakulinen, Hottenga, Korhonen, Mamun, Neumann, Rivadeneira, Silberg, van Beijsterveldt, Vuoksimaa, Tong, Burt, Harden, Harris, Hartman, Heinrich, Hypponen, Jarvelin, Keltikangas- Järvinen, Klump, Kuja-Halkola, Lehtimäki, Maes, Najman, Oldehinkel, Pennell, Snieder, Standl, Sunyer, Tiemeier, Williams, Messrs. Jiang, Mallard, Palviainen, and Mss. Tate, Wang, Henders, Marrington, and Whipp have reported no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

©2022 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc.