Shared Genetic Risk between Eating Disorder and Substance Use-Related Phenotypes: Evidence from Genome-Wide Association Studies

Date
2021
Authors
Language
American English
Embargo Lift Date
Committee Members
Degree
Degree Year
Department
Grantor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Found At
Wiley
Abstract

Eating disorders and substance use disorders frequently co-occur. Twin studies reveal shared genetic risk between eating disorders and substance use, with the strongest associations between symptoms of bulimia nervosa (BN) and problem alcohol use, mainly abuse and dependence (twin-based genetic correlation [rg]=0.23–0.53). Analytic advances facilitate the computation of genetic correlations using summary statistics from existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We investigated shared genetic risk between eating disorder and substance use and disorder phenotypes using GWAS data. Four eating disorder phenotypes (anorexia nervosa [AN], AN with binge-eating, AN without binge-eating, and a BN factor score), and eight substance use-related phenotypes (drinks per week, alcohol use disorder [AUD], smoking initiation, current smoking, cigarettes per day, nicotine dependence, cannabis initiation, and cannabis use disorder) from eight studies were included. Total sample sizes per phenotype ranged from ~2,400 to ~537,000 individuals. We used linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate single nucleotide polymorphism-based genetic correlations between eating disorder and substance use-related phenotypes. Significant positive genetic associations emerged between AUD and AN (rg=0.18; false discovery rate q=0.0006), cannabis initiation and AN (rg=0.23; q<0.0001), and cannabis initiation and AN with binge-eating (rg=0.27; q=0.0016). Conversely, significant negative genetic correlations were observed between three non-diagnostic smoking phenotypes (smoking initiation, smoking cessation, and cigarettes per day) and AN without binge-eating (rgs=−0.19 to −0.23; qs<0.04). The observed patterns of association between different eating disorder and substance use-related phenotypes highlights the potentially complex and substance-specific relationships between these behaviors associated with significant public health burden.

Description
item.page.description.tableofcontents
item.page.relation.haspart
Cite As
Munn-Chernoff MA, Johnson EC, Chou YL, et al. Shared genetic risk between eating disorder- and substance-use-related phenotypes: Evidence from genome-wide association studies. Addict Biol. 2021;26(1):e12880. doi:10.1111/adb.12880
ISSN
Publisher
Series/Report
Sponsorship
Major
Extent
Identifier
Relation
Journal
Addiction Biology
Rights
Publisher Policy
Source
PMC
Alternative Title
Type
Article
Number
Volume
Conference Dates
Conference Host
Conference Location
Conference Name
Conference Panel
Conference Secretariat Location
Version
Author's manuscript
Full Text Available at
This item is under embargo {{howLong}}