A study analyses the risk genetic factors shared between ADHD and disruptive behaviour disorders

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People with attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) combined with disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs) share about the 80% of genetic variants associated with aggressive and antisocial behaviours. This is one of the conclusions of a study published in the journal Nature Communications which counts on the participation of professor Bru Cormand, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), Sant Joan de Déu Research Institute (IRSJD) and the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERER), and researchers Marta Ribasés and Josep Antoni Ramos Quiroga, from Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and the Mental Health Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERSAM).

The study –the most ambitious one published to date on risk genetic factors shared between people with ADHD and DBDs– is based on the study conducted to about 4,000 affected people by these pathologies and 30,000 control individuals, within the frame of the European project Aggressotype, from the Horizon 2020 program, aimed at doing research on the neurobiological basis of the aggressive behaviour. The study is led by Ditte Demontis and Anders D. Børglum (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Stephen V. Faraone (State University of New York, United States).

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, is a new science advance that will contribute to broaden the genetic landscape of ADHD comorbidities (that is, the series of pathologies that are correlated with this disorder). From a clinical perspective, knowing the psychiatric alterations that share genetics is a step forward, because it will enable the prediction of potential secondary complications over the life of those individuals with ADHD.

Reference article:

Demontis D, Walters RK, Rajagopal VM, Waldman ID, Grove J, Als TD, Dalsgaard S, Ribasés M, Bybjerg-Grauholm J, Bækvad-Hansen M, Werge T, Nordentoft M, Mors O, Mortensen PB; ADHD Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), Cormand B, Hougaard DM, Neale BM, Franke B, Faraone SV, Børglum AD. Risk variants and polygenic architecture of disruptive behavior disorders in the context of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 25;12(1):576. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20443-2. Erratum in: Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 15;12(1):1166. PMID: 33495439; PMCID: PMC7835232.

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