Polygenic Risk Scores, Structural Brain Imaging and Quantitative Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Scores in Clinically Diagnosed Samples of Children and Adolescents with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and other Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Date
2024-12-23
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Abstract
Obsessive-compulsive symptoms include intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors. They are common in youth and are reported to be moderately heritable and associated with structural brain changes implicated in their pathophysiology. This study explores the relationship between structural brain changes, genetic variation, and childhood obsessive-compulsive symptom scores in a sample comprising six different mental disorders. Genetic analysis showed potential correlations with large-scale summary statistics to identify relevant polygenic risk markers. We also observed a strong genetic association between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and polygenic risk for anxiety disorder. By analyzing brain imaging data including cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume from clinically diagnosed cases and healthy controls, this research integrates polygenic risk score analysis to assess genetic susceptibility linked to OC traits. We delineate the surface area of the inferior parietal lobule as a promising neuroimaging endophenotype associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, revealing potential structural brain changes influenced by genetic markers. These findings contribute to understanding the biological pathophysiology of these traits in children and youth and sets the stage for further investigation in larger samples that may offer deeper insights into the etiology of obsessive-compulsive and other related neuropsychiatric disorders.
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Pediatric, mental health, genetics, neuroimaging
Citation
Antonyan, L. (2024). Polygenic risk scores, structural brain imaging and quantitative obsessive-compulsive symptom scores in clinically diagnosed samples of children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder and other neuropsychiatric disorders (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.