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A research describes genetic relationship between some psychiatric disorders

By 3 de September de 2013November 18th, 2020No Comments
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From left to right, researchers from VHIR with Bru Cormand member of the IBUB.
 03.09.2013

A research describes genetic relationship between some psychiatric disorders

A research published on the journal Nature Genetics () proves that schizophrenia, autism, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) share a significant genetic etiology. Professor Bru Cormand, from the Department of Genetics and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), and Mònica Bayés, from the National Center for Genome Analysis (CNAG) –located at the Parc Científic de Barcelona– participated in the research. The article is also signed by experts Miguel Casas, Josep Antoni Ramos Quiroga and Marta Ribasés, from Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).


More than 300 experts from 250 worldwide institutions collaborate in the study. It is coordinated by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, the largest consortium in the history of psychiatry and the largest biological experiment in psychiatric disorders genetics. The research is supported by La Marató de TV3, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Alicia Koplowitz Foundation and the Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER).

Internationally, the research is coordinated by experts Sang Hong Lee and Naomi Wray, from the University of Queensland (Australia), and Kenneth Kendler, from Virginia Commonwealth University (United States). In Catalonia, the research is coordinated by VIHR, by means of the International Multicentre Persistent ADHD Genetics Collaboration (IMpACT), which analyses the genetic causes of ADHD, a disorder characterized by significant problems either of inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsiveness, affects children and adults and is more frequent in males.

Genotype analysis of more than 75,000 people

Psychiatric disorders affect a third of population; their causes continue to be quite unknown. The study analyses the genotype of more than 75,000 individuals (patients and control) in order to determine which DNA variations are most commonly associated to five psychiatric disorders: autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and ADHD.

Bru Cormand, leader of the Research Group on Neurogenetics at the Department of Genetics of the UB and member of the consortium IMpACT, explains that “these psychiatric disorders share some clinical manifestations which may indicate that there is a common genetic basis. These disorders are quite common in population, they have been widely studied in an independent way by scientific groups, and this is the first time that a huge study confirms their genetic correlation”.

Basic research is promoting scientific advances in the field of psychiatric diagnosis. Bru Cormand affirms that “in the future, to identify the genetic profile of patients with psychiatric disorders will contribute to predict which disorders may affect them; it will be a new tool to improve preventive strategies”.

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