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The genetic contribution to the comorbidity of depression and anxiety: a multi-site electronic health records study of almost 178 000 people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2023

Brandon J Coombes*
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Isotta Landi
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Mount Sinai Clinical Intelligence Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Karmel W Choi
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Center for Precision Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Kritika Singh
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Brian Fennessy
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Greg D Jenkins
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Anthony Batzler
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Richard Pendegraft
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Nicolas A Nunez
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry & Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Y Nina Gao
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
Euijung Ryu
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
Priya Wickramaratne
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
Myrna M Weissman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
Jyotishman Pathak
Affiliation:
Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA Clinical and Translational Science Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA
J John Mann
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
Jordan W Smoller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Center for Precision Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Lea K Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
Mark Olfson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, USA
Alexander W Charney
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Mount Sinai Clinical Intelligence Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Joanna M Biernacka
Affiliation:
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA Department of Psychiatry & Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
*
Corresponding author: Brandon J Coombes, E-mail: coombes.brandon@mayo.edu
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Abstract

Background

Depression and anxiety are common and highly comorbid, and their comorbidity is associated with poorer outcomes posing clinical and public health concerns. We evaluated the polygenic contribution to comorbid depression and anxiety, and to each in isolation.

Methods

Diagnostic codes were extracted from electronic health records for four biobanks [N = 177 865 including 138 632 European (77.9%), 25 612 African (14.4%), and 13 621 Hispanic (7.7%) ancestry participants]. The outcome was a four-level variable representing the depression/anxiety diagnosis group: neither, depression-only, anxiety-only, and comorbid. Multinomial regression was used to test for association of depression and anxiety polygenic risk scores (PRSs) with the outcome while adjusting for principal components of ancestry.

Results

In total, 132 960 patients had neither diagnosis (74.8%), 16 092 depression-only (9.0%), 13 098 anxiety-only (7.4%), and 16 584 comorbid (9.3%). In the European meta-analysis across biobanks, both PRSs were higher in each diagnosis group compared to controls. Notably, depression-PRS (OR 1.20 per s.d. increase in PRS; 95% CI 1.18–1.23) and anxiety-PRS (OR 1.07; 95% CI 1.05–1.09) had the largest effect when the comorbid group was compared with controls. Furthermore, the depression-PRS was significantly higher in the comorbid group than the depression-only group (OR 1.09; 95% CI 1.06–1.12) and the anxiety-only group (OR 1.15; 95% CI 1.11–1.19) and was significantly higher in the depression-only group than the anxiety-only group (OR 1.06; 95% CI 1.02–1.09), showing a genetic risk gradient across the conditions and the comorbidity.

Conclusions

This study suggests that depression and anxiety have partially independent genetic liabilities and the genetic vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety make distinct contributions to comorbid depression and anxiety.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Distribution of depression (MDD) and anxiety (ANX) diagnoses at each site specified by at least two diagnosis codes from the EHR. Each site's sample size and ancestries (EUR, European; AFR, African/African American; AMR, Hispanic) are included in the top left of each site plot.

Figure 1

Figure 2. PRS prediction of depression and anxiety separately. Site- and ancestry-specific association of MDD-PRS and ANX-PRS with MDD and ANX, respectively, defined by having at least two ICD codes from the EHR. Performance is measured by variance explained by the PRS on the liability scale (assuming 20% population prevalence for both disorders). p values for each association are listed above each bar.

Figure 2

Table 1. Joint PRS prediction of depression and anxiety comorbidity from the multinomial model

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