Browsing by Author "Ong, Jue-Sheng"

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    Evidence of causal effect of major depression on alcohol dependence: findings from the psychiatric genomics consortium
    (Cambridge University Press, 2019-05) Polimanti, Renato; Peterson, Roseann E.; Ong, Jue-Sheng; MacGregor, Stuart; Edwards, Alexis C.; Clarke, Toni-Kim; Frank, Josef; Gerring, Zachary; Gillespie, Nathan A.; Lind, Penelope A.; Maes, Hermine H.; Martin, Nicholas G.; Mbarek, Hamdi; Medland, Sarah E.; Streit, Fabian; Agrawal, Arpana; Edenberg, Howard J.; Kendler, Kenneth S.; Lewis, Cathryn M.; Sullivan, Patrick F.; Wray, Naomi R.; Gelernter, Joel; Derks, Eske M.; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND: Despite established clinical associations among major depression (MD), alcohol dependence (AD), and alcohol consumption (AC), the nature of the causal relationship between them is not completely understood. We leveraged genome-wide data from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) and UK Biobank to test for the presence of shared genetic mechanisms and causal relationships among MD, AD, and AC. METHODS: Linkage disequilibrium score regression and Mendelian randomization (MR) were performed using genome-wide data from the PGC (MD: 135 458 cases and 344 901 controls; AD: 10 206 cases and 28 480 controls) and UK Biobank (AC-frequency: 438 308 individuals; AC-quantity: 307 098 individuals). RESULTS: Positive genetic correlation was observed between MD and AD (rgMD-AD = + 0.47, P = 6.6 × 10-10). AC-quantity showed positive genetic correlation with both AD (rgAD-AC quantity = + 0.75, P = 1.8 × 10-14) and MD (rgMD-AC quantity = + 0.14, P = 2.9 × 10-7), while there was negative correlation of AC-frequency with MD (rgMD-AC frequency = -0.17, P = 1.5 × 10-10) and a non-significant result with AD. MR analyses confirmed the presence of pleiotropy among these four traits. However, the MD-AD results reflect a mediated-pleiotropy mechanism (i.e. causal relationship) with an effect of MD on AD (beta = 0.28, P = 1.29 × 10-6). There was no evidence for reverse causation. CONCLUSION: This study supports a causal role for genetic liability of MD on AD based on genetic datasets including thousands of individuals. Understanding mechanisms underlying MD-AD comorbidity addresses important public health concerns and has the potential to facilitate prevention and intervention efforts.