Shared Genetic Factors Influence Risk for Bipolar Disorder and Alcoholism

Bipolar disorder and alcoholism have high rate comorbidity, with more than 50% of alcoholism occurrence in bipolar disorder. While there is evidence that both disorders are heritable, it is unclear if the same genetic factors predispose them. The aim of this study is to determine if common genetic factors influence risk for bipolar disorder and alcoholism. A total of 733 Costa Rican individuals from 61 extended pedigrees, selected for sibling pairs with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, participated in the study. All subjects completed a diagnostic interview, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and Fagerström questionnaire for Nicotine Dependence. Heritability and bivariate correlations were estimated using SOLAR. Based on a best-estimate process, twenty-nine percent of the sample met criteria for broad bipolar phenotype, 23% bipolar I disorder, 15% alcoholism, 32% smoking, only 2% drug abuse, and 20% for an anxiety disorder. Thirty-three present did not meet criteria for a lifetime diagnosis. In the broad bipolar phenotype group, 28% had a lifetime diagnosis of alcoholism. The heritability estimated for broad bipolar phenotype was h2=0.559 (p=7.0x10-6) and for alcoholism was h2=0.752 (p=3.0x10-7). Only alcoholism (ρg=0.600, p=0.002) and habitual smoking (ρg=0.717, p=2.1x10-4) were significantly genetically correlated with the broad bipolar phenotype. A similar pattern of results was observed for the bipolar I disorder phenotype. The current findings strongly imply that shared genetic factors increase risk for bipolar disorder and addictive disorders. A better understanding of this comorbidity could improve clinical outcomes and potentially facilitate novel treatments.National Institutes of Health/[MH080912]/NIH/Estados UnidosNational Institutes of Health/[MH059490]/NIH/Estados UnidosUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigación en Biología Celular y Molecular (CIBCM)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Biologí

Correction: Dose response of the 16p11.2 distal copy number variant on intracranial volume and basal ganglia

Prior to and following the publication of this article the authors noted that the complete list of authors was not included in the main article and was only present in Supplementary Table 1. The author list in the original article has now been updated to include all authors, and Supplementary Table 1 has been removed. All other supplementary files have now been updated accordingly. Furthermore, in Table 1 of this Article, the replication cohort for the row Close relative in data set, n (%) was incorrect. All values have now been corrected to 0(0%). The publishers would like to apologise for this error and the inconvenience it may have caused