Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?

Psychosis has been hypothesised to be a continuously distributed quantitative phenotype and disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder represent its extreme manifestations. Evidence suggests that common genetic variants play an important role in liability to both schizophrenia and bipolar...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dominika Sieradzka, Robert A Power, Daniel Freeman, Alastair G Cardno, Philip McGuire, Robert Plomin, Emma L Meaburn, Frank Dudbridge, Angelica Ronald
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0094398&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850125141043838976
author Dominika Sieradzka
Robert A Power
Daniel Freeman
Alastair G Cardno
Philip McGuire
Robert Plomin
Emma L Meaburn
Frank Dudbridge
Angelica Ronald
author_facet Dominika Sieradzka
Robert A Power
Daniel Freeman
Alastair G Cardno
Philip McGuire
Robert Plomin
Emma L Meaburn
Frank Dudbridge
Angelica Ronald
author_sort Dominika Sieradzka
collection DOAJ
description Psychosis has been hypothesised to be a continuously distributed quantitative phenotype and disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder represent its extreme manifestations. Evidence suggests that common genetic variants play an important role in liability to both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Here we tested the hypothesis that these common variants would also influence psychotic experiences measured dimensionally in adolescents in the general population. Our aim was to test whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder polygenic risk scores (PRS), as well as specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously identified as risk variants for schizophrenia, were associated with adolescent dimension-specific psychotic experiences. Self-reported Paranoia, Hallucinations, Cognitive Disorganisation, Grandiosity, Anhedonia, and Parent-rated Negative Symptoms, as measured by the Specific Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire (SPEQ), were assessed in a community sample of 2,152 16-year-olds. Polygenic risk scores were calculated using estimates of the log of odds ratios from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium GWAS stage-1 mega-analysis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The polygenic risk analyses yielded no significant associations between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder PRS and the SPEQ measures. The analyses on the 28 individual SNPs previously associated with schizophrenia found that two SNPs in TCF4 returned a significant association with the SPEQ Paranoia dimension, rs17512836 (p-value = 2.57×10⁻⁴) and rs9960767 (p-value = 6.23×10⁻⁴). Replication in an independent sample of 16-year-olds (N = 3,427) assessed using the Psychotic-Like Symptoms Questionnaire (PLIKS-Q), a composite measure of multiple positive psychotic experiences, failed to yield significant results. Future research with PRS derived from larger samples, as well as larger adolescent validation samples, would improve the predictive power to test these hypotheses further. The challenges of relating adult clinical diagnostic constructs such as schizophrenia to adolescent psychotic experiences at a genetic level are discussed.
format Article
id doaj-art-abec6940bf034b79ba017ffbed07869e
institution OA Journals
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2014-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-abec6940bf034b79ba017ffbed07869e2025-08-20T02:34:10ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0194e9439810.1371/journal.pone.0094398Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?Dominika SieradzkaRobert A PowerDaniel FreemanAlastair G CardnoPhilip McGuireRobert PlominEmma L MeaburnFrank DudbridgeAngelica RonaldPsychosis has been hypothesised to be a continuously distributed quantitative phenotype and disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder represent its extreme manifestations. Evidence suggests that common genetic variants play an important role in liability to both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Here we tested the hypothesis that these common variants would also influence psychotic experiences measured dimensionally in adolescents in the general population. Our aim was to test whether schizophrenia and bipolar disorder polygenic risk scores (PRS), as well as specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously identified as risk variants for schizophrenia, were associated with adolescent dimension-specific psychotic experiences. Self-reported Paranoia, Hallucinations, Cognitive Disorganisation, Grandiosity, Anhedonia, and Parent-rated Negative Symptoms, as measured by the Specific Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire (SPEQ), were assessed in a community sample of 2,152 16-year-olds. Polygenic risk scores were calculated using estimates of the log of odds ratios from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium GWAS stage-1 mega-analysis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The polygenic risk analyses yielded no significant associations between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder PRS and the SPEQ measures. The analyses on the 28 individual SNPs previously associated with schizophrenia found that two SNPs in TCF4 returned a significant association with the SPEQ Paranoia dimension, rs17512836 (p-value = 2.57×10⁻⁴) and rs9960767 (p-value = 6.23×10⁻⁴). Replication in an independent sample of 16-year-olds (N = 3,427) assessed using the Psychotic-Like Symptoms Questionnaire (PLIKS-Q), a composite measure of multiple positive psychotic experiences, failed to yield significant results. Future research with PRS derived from larger samples, as well as larger adolescent validation samples, would improve the predictive power to test these hypotheses further. The challenges of relating adult clinical diagnostic constructs such as schizophrenia to adolescent psychotic experiences at a genetic level are discussed.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0094398&type=printable
spellingShingle Dominika Sieradzka
Robert A Power
Daniel Freeman
Alastair G Cardno
Philip McGuire
Robert Plomin
Emma L Meaburn
Frank Dudbridge
Angelica Ronald
Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?
PLoS ONE
title Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?
title_full Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?
title_fullStr Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?
title_full_unstemmed Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?
title_short Are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension-specific psychotic experiences in adolescence?
title_sort are genetic risk factors for psychosis also associated with dimension specific psychotic experiences in adolescence
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0094398&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT dominikasieradzka aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT robertapower aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT danielfreeman aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT alastairgcardno aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT philipmcguire aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT robertplomin aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT emmalmeaburn aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT frankdudbridge aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence
AT angelicaronald aregeneticriskfactorsforpsychosisalsoassociatedwithdimensionspecificpsychoticexperiencesinadolescence