Estimating the Genetic Variance of Major Depressive Disorder Due to All Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms

• Published in: Biological psychiatry (1969) Vol. 72; no. 8; pp. 707 - 709
• Main Authors: Lubke, Gitta H., Hottenga, Jouke Jan, Walters, Raymond, Laurin, Charles, de Geus, Eco J.C., Willemsen, Gonneke, Smit, Jan H., Middeldorp, Christel M., Penninx, Brenda W.J.H., Vink, Jacqueline M., Boomsma, Dorret I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 15.10.2012; Elsevier
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder, Major - genetics; Fasting; Fasting glucose; Female; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic Variation - genetics; genome-wide association studies (GWAS); Genome-Wide Association Study; genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA); Genotype; Glucose; height; Humans; major depressive disorder (MDD); Male; Medical sciences; missing heritability; Models, Statistical; Mood disorders; Netherlands; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Psychiatric/Mental Health; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; smoking; Smoking - genetics; Tobacco smoking; Tobacco, tobacco smoking; Toxicology; Twin Studies as Topic; Netherlands; smoking; genome-wide association studies (GWAS); genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA); missing heritability; Fasting glucose; major depressive disorder (MDD); height; Mood disorder; Fasting; Tobacco smoking; Depression; Glucose; Genetic determinism; Genetics; Heritability; Single nucleotide polymorphism
• ISSN: 0006-3223; 1873-2402; 1873-2402
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.03.011

Genome-wide association studies of psychiatric disorders have been criticized for their lack of explaining a considerable proportion of the heritability established in twin and family studies. Genome-wide association studies of major depressive disorder in particular have so far been unsuccessful in detecting genome-wide significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Using two recently proposed methods designed to estimate the heritability of a phenotype that is attributable to genome-wide SNPs, we show that SNPs on current platforms contain substantial information concerning the additive genetic variance of major depressive disorder. To assess the consistency of these two methods, we analyzed four other complex phenotypes from different domains. The pattern of results is consistent with estimates of heritability obtained in twin studies carried out in the same population.