Cited by 3,005Genetic Associations and EpidemiologyTreatment of Major DepressionNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

Genome-wide association analyses identify 44 risk variants and refine the genetic architecture of major depression

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eQTLGen, Wray, Naomi R., 23andMe, the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Ripke, Stephan, Mattheisen, Manuel, Trzaskowski, Maciej, Byrne, Enda M. +211 more·2018·Nature Genetics

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common illness accompanied by considerable morbidity, mortality, costs, and heightened risk of suicide. We conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis based in 135,458 cases and 344,901 controls and identified 44 independent and significant loci. The genetic findings were associated with clinical features of major depression and implicated brain regions exhibiting anatomical differences in cases. Targets of antidepressant medications and genes involved in gene splicing were enriched for smaller association signal. We found important relationships of genetic risk for major depression with educational attainment, body mass, and schizophrenia: lower educational attainment and higher body mass were putatively causal, whereas major depression and schizophrenia reflected a partly shared biological etiology. All humans carry lesser or greater numbers of genetic risk factors for major depression. These findings help refine the basis of major depression and imply that a continuous measure of risk underlies the clinical phenotype. A genome-wide association meta-analysis of individuals with clinically assessed or self-reported depression identifies 44 independent risk loci. Comparisons with other psychiatric disorders and candidate gene analyses provide new insights into major depressive disorder.

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  • A GWAS meta-analysis of MDD published in 2018 identified 44 depression-associated loci and integrated genetic and mQTL data from two large studies to identify nine risk variants controlling local DNA methylation in blood.

    “A GWAS meta-analysis of MDD published in 2018 identified 44 depression-associated loci and integrated genetic and mQTL data from two large studies to identify nine risk variants controlling local DNAm in blood.”

    From Epigenetics and depression (2019) · cites this paper as [49]

    Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • A subset of the risk variants for MDD could be responsible for the differentially methylated regions observed in patients with MDD.

    “This overlap indicates that a subset of the risk variants for MDD could be responsible for the DMRs observed in patients with MDD.”

    From Epigenetics and depression (2019) · cites this paper as [49]

    The Results section, under “Implications from integration of functional genomic data” (page not available), reports strong evidence that nine major-depression-associated SNPs control local DNA methylation. It does not establish that those SNPs overlap with, or are responsible for, differentially methylated regions observed in patients with MDD. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Some of the nine mQTLs are located near genes encoding miRNAs; however, the function of these variants and DMRs must still be assessed.

    “Interestingly, some of the nine mQTLs are located near genes encoding miRNAs; however, the function of these variants and DMRs must still be assessed.”

    From Epigenetics and depression (2019) · cites this paper as [49]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The major haplotype outside Africa was found significantly associated with greater susceptibility to major depression and other related psychiatric disorders and with higher values for self-reported helping behavior.

    “The major haplotype outside Africa was found significantly associated with greater susceptibility to major depression and other related psychiatric disorders [55,56] as well as with higher values for self-reported helping behavior [57].”

    From Human genetic adaptation related to cellular zinc homeostasis (2023) · cites this paper as [56]

    The Results section reports 44 loci significantly associated with major depression, and the Discussion reports positive genetic correlations with other psychiatric disorders. Neither passage identifies a major haplotype outside Africa or shows that such a haplotype is associated with susceptibility to those disorders. The helping-behavior claim is attached to a different citation [57] and is not assessed here. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • GWAS have discovered and successfully replicated genome-wide associations of common gene variants for schizophrenia and major depression.

    “large consortia that have discovered and successfully replicated genome-wide associations of common gene variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) for several disorders including schizophrenia [2] and major depression [3–6].”

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Authors
eQTLGen, Wray, N. R., 23andMe, the Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Ripke, S., Mattheisen, M., Trzaskowski, M., Byrne, E. M., Abdellaoui, A., Adams, M. J., Agerbo, E., Air, T. M., Andlauer, T. M. F., Bacanu, S.-A., Bækvad-Hansen, M., Beekman, A. F. T., Bigdeli, T. B., Binder, E. B., Blackwood, D. R. H., Bryois, J., Buttenschøn, H. N., Bybjerg-Grauholm, J., Cai, N., Castelao, E., Christensen, J. H., Clarke, T.-K., Coleman, J. I. R., Colodro-Conde, L., Couvy-Duchesne, B., Craddock, N., Crawford, G. E., Crowley, C. A., Dashti, H. S., Davies, G., Deary, I. J., Degenhardt, F., Derks, E. M., Direk, N., Dolan, C. V., Dunn, E. C., Eley, T. C., Eriksson, N., Escott-Price, V., Kiadeh, F. H. F., Finucane, H. K., Forstner, A. J., Frank, J., Gaspar, H. A., Gill, M., Giusti-Rodríguez, P., Goes, F. S., Gordon, S. D., Grove, J., Hall, L. S., Hannon, E., Hansen, C. S., Hansen, T. F., Herms, S., Hickie, I. B., Hoffmann, P., Homuth, G., Horn, C., Hottenga, J.-J., Hougaard, D. M., Hu, M., Hyde, C. L., Ising, M., Jansen, R., Jin, F., Jorgenson, E., Knowles, J. A., Kohane, I. S., Kraft, J., Kretzschmar, W. W., Krogh, J., Kutalik, Z., Lane, J. M., Li, Y., Li, Y., Lind, P. A., Liu, X., Lu, L., MacIntyre, D. J., MacKinnon, D. F., Maier, R. M., Maier, W., Marchini, J., Mbarek, H., McGrath, P., McGuffin, P., Medland, S. E., Mehta, D., Middeldorp, C. M., Mihailov, E., Milaneschi, Y., Milani, L., Mill, J., Mondimore, F. M., Montgomery, G. W., Mostafavi, S., Mullins, N., Nauck, M., Ng, B., Nivard, M. G., Nyholt, D. R., O’Reilly, P. F., Oskarsson, H., Owen, M. J., Painter, J. N., Pedersen, C. B., Pedersen, M. G., Peterson, R. E., Pettersson, E., Peyrot, W. J., Pistis, G., Posthuma, D., Purcell, S. M., Quiroz, J. A., Qvist, P., Rice, J. P., Riley, B. P., Rivera, M., Saeed Mirza, S., Saxena, R., Schoevers, R., Schulte, E. C., Shen, L., Shi, J., Shyn, S. I., Sigurdsson, E., Sinnamon, G. B. C., Smit, J. H., Smith, D. J., Stefansson, H., Steinberg, S., Stockmeier, C. A., Streit, F., Strohmaier, J., Tansey, K. E., Teismann, H., Teumer, A., Thompson, W., Thomson, P. A., Thorgeirsson, T. E., Tian, C., Traylor, M., Treutlein, J., Trubetskoy, V., Uitterlinden, A. G., Umbricht, D., Van der Auwera, S., van Hemert, A. M., Viktorin, A., Visscher, P. M., Wang, Y., Webb, B. T., Weinsheimer, S. M., Wellmann, J., Willemsen, G., Witt, S. H., Wu, Y., Xi, H. S., Yang, J., Zhang, F., Arolt, V., Baune, B. T., Berger, K., Boomsma, D. I., Cichon, S., Dannlowski, U., de Geus, E. C. J., DePaulo, J. R., Domenici, E., Domschke, K., Esko, T., Grabe, H. J., Hamilton, S. P., Hayward, C., Heath, A. C., Hinds, D. A., Kendler, K. S., Kloiber, S., Lewis, G., Li, Q. S., Lucae, S., Madden, P. F. A., Magnusson, P. K., Martin, N. G., McIntosh, A. M., Metspalu, A., Mors, O., Mortensen, P. B., Müller-Myhsok, B., Nordentoft, M., Nöthen, M. M., O’Donovan, M. C., Paciga, S. A., Pedersen, N. L., Penninx, B. W. J. H., Perlis, R. H., Porteous, D. J., Potash, J. B., Preisig, M., Rietschel, M., Schaefer, C., Schulze, T. G., Smoller, J. W., Stefansson, K., Tiemeier, H., Uher, R., Völzke, H., Weissman, M. M., Werge, T., Winslow, A. R., Lewis, C. M., Levinson, D. F., Breen, G., Børglum, A. D., & Sullivan, P. F.
Affiliations
  • The University of Queensland (AU)
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • Aarhus University (DK)
  • Amsterdam Public Health (NL)
  • The University of Adelaide (AU)
  • Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
  • Emory University (US)
  • Statens Serum Institut (DK)
  • European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
  • Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (AU)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • University of Bonn (DE)
  • University of British Columbia (CA)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Trinity College Dublin (IE)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • University of Exeter (GB)
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
  • F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (CH)
  • Universitätsmedizin Greifswald (DE)
  • Cleveland Clinic (US)
  • Pfizer (United States) (US)
  • Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (DE)
  • Kaiser Permanente (US)
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • University of Copenhagen (DK)
  • SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH)
  • Case Western Reserve University (US)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Queensland University of Technology (AU)
  • University of Tartu (EE)
  • GGZ inGeest (NL)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Universidad de Granada (ES)
  • University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
  • National Cancer Institute (US)
  • University of Iceland (IS)
  • University of Glasgow (GB)
  • deCODE Genetics (Iceland) (IS)
  • Heidelberg University (DE)
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
  • 23andMe (United States) (US)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • Mental Health Services (DK)
  • University of Münster (DE)
  • University of Basel (CH)
  • University of Trento (IT)
  • University of Freiburg (DE)
  • Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CA)
  • Karolinska Institutet (SE)
  • Aarhus University Hospital (DK)
  • University of Liverpool (GB)
  • Copenhagen University Hospital (DK)
  • University of Iowa (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Dalhousie University (CA)
Corresponding author
  • Wray, Naomi R.
  • Sullivan, Patrick F.
ORCID
Venue
Nature Genetics
Published
2018-04-26
Volume
50
Issue
5
Pages
668-681
ISSN
  • 1061-4036 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1718
OpenAlex
W2738082385
Cited by
3,005
References
140
Citations by year
2026: 183 · 2025: 323 · 2024: 407 · 2023: 406 · 2022: 360 · 2021: 407 · 2020: 400 · 2019: 355 · 2018: 143 · 2017: 15 · 2014: 1
FWCI
197.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion)
  • EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (acceptedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • ResearchOnline at James Cook University (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
  • Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
  • IRIS (submittedVersion)
  • JuSER (Forschungszentrum Jülich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
  • EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • Iris (University of Trento) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • SUNY Digital Repository Support (State University of New York System) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
  • Royal Devon and Exeter Research Repository (Royal Devon and Exeter) (submittedVersion)
  • VUBIR (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
Funders
  • Amgen
  • Pfizer
  • GlaxoSmithKline
  • Northwestern University
  • South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
  • Wellcome Trust (104036/Z/14/Z)
  • QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research
  • King's College London
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (01GS0481, 01ER0816, NGFN-2, 03ZIK012, 01ZZ0403, FKZ 01GS0481, 01ES0811, 01ZZ0103, 01ZZ9603)
  • Erasmus Medisch Centrum
  • Lundbeckfonden (R155-2014-1724, R102‐A9118, R248‐2017‐2003, U01 MH109528)
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  • Novo Nordisk
  • Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
  • Siemens Healthineers (01ZZ0103, 01ZZ0403, 01ZZ9603)
  • H. Lundbeck A/S
  • Universität Greifswald
  • National Institutes of Health (1s10od018164-01, CA093459)
  • Gillings School of Public Health
  • Medical Research Council (MR/L023784/2, MR/K026992/1, MR/N015746/1, MC_PC_17228, MR/L010305/1, MC_UU_00007/10)
  • NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL007901)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (K01MH109772, U01MH046276, U01MH109528, U01MH085520, R01MH059566, U01MH046318, R01MH059571, R01MH060879, R01MH059565, U01MH109536, R01MH081800, R01MH060870, MH109532, U01MH094421, U01MH046289, U01MH079469, R01MH061675, R01MH059586, R01MH059588, R01MH067257, U01MH079470, U01MH109532, R01MH059587)
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA034076)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG009658)
  • National Cancer Institute (P50CA097007, R01CA133996, P50CA093459)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P30GM103328)
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES011740)
  • FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (294838)
  • Cilag
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords
major depressive disorder, genetic susceptibility loci, genetic architecture, educational attainment, body mass, schizophrenia, shared genetic etiology, antidepressant targets, gene splicing, clinical phenotype
MeSH terms
Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Phenotype, Risk Factors, Schizophrenia, Case-Control Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Multifactorial Inheritance, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Genome-Wide Association Study

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