Genome-wide association studies identify polygenic effects for completed suicide in the Japanese population

Suicide is a significant public health problem worldwide, and several Asian countries including Japan have relatively high suicide rates on a world scale. Twin, family, and adoption studies have suggested high heritability for suicide, but genetics lags behind due to difficulty in obtaining samples from individuals who died by suicide, especially in non-European populations. In this study, we carried out genome-wide association studies combining two independent datasets totaling 746 suicides and 14,049 non-suicide controls in the Japanese population. Although we identified no genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we demonstrated significant SNP-based heritability (35–48%; P < 0.001) for completed suicide by genomic restricted maximum-likelihood analysis and a shared genetic risk between two datasets (P best = 2.7 × 10−13) by polygenic risk score analysis. This study is the first genome-wide association study for suicidal behavior in an East Asian population, and our results provided the evidence of polygenic architecture underlying completed suicide

EGUIDE project and treatment guidelines

Aim: Although treatment guidelines for pharmacological therapy for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder have been issued by the Japanese Societies of Neuropsychopharmacology and Mood Disorders, these guidelines have not been well applied by psychiatrists throughout the nation. To address this issue, we developed the ‘Effectiveness of Guidelines for Dissemination and Education in Psychiatric Treatment (EGUIDE)’ integrated education programs for psychiatrists to disseminate the clinical guidelines. Additionally, we conducted a systematic efficacy evaluation of the programs. Methods: Four hundred thirteen out of 461 psychiatrists attended two 1‐day educational programs based on the treatment guidelines for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder from October 2016 to March 2018. We measured the participants’ clinical knowledge of the treatment guidelines using self‐completed questionnaires administered before and after the program to assess the effectiveness of the programs for improving knowledge. We also examined the relation between the participants’ demographics and their clinical knowledge scores. Results: The clinical knowledge scores for both guidelines were significantly improved after the program. There was no correlation between clinical knowledge and participant demographics for the program on schizophrenia; however, a weak positive correlation was found between clinical knowledge and the years of professional experience for the program on major depressive disorder. Conclusion: Our results provide evidence that educational programs on the clinical practices recommended in guidelines for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder might effectively improve participants’ clinical knowledge of the guidelines. These data are encouraging to facilitate the standardization of clinical practices for psychiatric disorders

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe

The acoustical characteristics of dugong calls and the behavioral correlates observed in Toba aquarium

Organized by Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University ; JSPS Bangkok Liaison Office ; Japanese Society of Bio-logging Science ; Informatics Research Center for Development of Knowledge Society InfrastructureDecember 13-14, 2005, Siam City Hotel, Bangkok, ThailandDugongs, Dugong dugon, are listed as Vulnerable to extinction in IUCN Red List. Previous reports suggested that there were some correlation between the behavior and the acoustical characteristics of dugongs. However, there was no continuous observation of an identified individual. We analyzed the acoustical characteristics of a captive dugong and the behavioral correlation in Toba aquarium, Japan. The purpose of this study was to predict its behavior based on the acoustical characteristics of dugong calls. In December in 2003 and 2004, we observed the male dugong (Junichi) in Toba aquarium. We used a digital video camera and a hydrophone to record the behavior and the vocalization of the dugong. Video-recording was taken in the daylight for 18 hours each (total 36 hours). The underwater sound recording was performed all through the survey for 31 hours each (total 62 hours). We recorded active movements (exposing its penis, rubbing its penis or body against objects, jumping out of the water, beating a water pillow with its flipper and running hard into wall). Through the observation, 616 calls were recorded. Call duration ranged 34-5039ms. These calls could be categorized by two types : short calls (chirp) that are under 300ms (380 samples) and long calls (trill) that are 300ms and above (236 samples). Call frequency ranged from 1.0 kHz to 8.6 kHz. All of the trains of calls with more than four calls were observed within 10 minutes from the active movements. The dugong made 38 very long calls (over 3000 ms). Almost all (94.7%) of the long calls were observed within 10 minutes from the active movements