Cited by 637Genetic Associations and EpidemiologyNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorTreatment of Major Depression

No Support for Historical Candidate Gene or Candidate Gene-by-Interaction Hypotheses for Major Depression Across Multiple Large Samples

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Border, Richard, Johnson, Emma C., Evans, Luke M., Smolen, Andrew, Berley, Noah, Sullivan, Patrick F., Keller, Matthew C.·2019·American Journal of Psychiatry

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Interest in candidate gene and candidate gene-by-environment interaction hypotheses regarding major depressive disorder remains strong despite controversy surrounding the validity of previous findings. In response to this controversy, the present investigation empirically identified 18 candidate genes for depression that have been studied 10 or more times and examined evidence for their relevance to depression phenotypes. METHODS: Utilizing data from large population-based and case-control samples (Ns ranging from 62,138 to 443,264 across subsamples), the authors conducted a series of preregistered analyses examining candidate gene polymorphism main effects, polymorphism-by-environment interactions, and gene-level effects across a number of operational definitions of depression (e.g., lifetime diagnosis, current severity, episode recurrence) and environmental moderators (e.g., sexual or physical abuse during childhood, socioeconomic adversity). RESULTS: No clear evidence was found for any candidate gene polymorphism associations with depression phenotypes or any polymorphism-by-environment moderator effects. As a set, depression candidate genes were no more associated with depression phenotypes than noncandidate genes. The authors demonstrate that phenotypic measurement error is unlikely to account for these null findings. CONCLUSIONS: The study results do not support previous depression candidate gene findings, in which large genetic effects are frequently reported in samples orders of magnitude smaller than those examined here. Instead, the results suggest that early hypotheses about depression candidate genes were incorrect and that the large number of associations reported in the depression candidate gene literature are likely to be false positives.

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Crossref · 10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.18070881

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  • Erroneous results from SNP-chips used in research biobanks can lead to false associations and wasted resource in the development of new treatments against the wrong targets.

    “However, erroneous results from SNP-chips used in research biobanks can also lead to false associations [32] and wasted resource in the development of new treatments against the wrong targets [33].”

    From Assessing the analytical validity of SNP-chips for detecting very rare pathogenic variants: implications for direct-to-consumer genetic testing (2019) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Conclusions discuss a potentially high false-discovery rate among published candidate-gene associations, so the paper supports the possibility of false associations. It does not attribute those associations to erroneous SNP-chip results in research biobanks; it discusses small samples, analytic methods and publication bias instead. The treatment-development claim has a separate citation [33] and is not attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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  • The trade-off between phenotype depth and sample size may be effective for gene discovery.

    “Though resulting measures are typically crude compared to the measures included in smaller studies [240], the trade-off between phenotype depth and sample size may be effective for gene discovery [241], as demonstrated by a recent preliminary report [242] of a GWAS for the Common CC factor.”

    From The role of prefrontal cortex in cognitive control and executive function (2022) · cites this paper as [241]

    The “Sensitivity of Results to Measurement Error” section (pp. 381–383) reports simulations in which a large sample retained approximately 100% power to detect specified candidate-gene effects despite severe measurement error. This supports the possibility that sample size can offset less precise phenotyping, but the paper does not show that this trade-off produced gene discoveries; its candidate-gene results were largely null. (LLM, conf=0.80)

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  • Erroneous results from SNP chips used in research biobanks can lead to false associations and wasted resource in the development of new treatments against the wrong targets.

    “However, erroneous results from SNP chips used in research biobanks can also lead to false associations and wasted resource in the development of new treatments against the wrong targets.33 34 35”

    From Use of SNP chips to detect rare pathogenic variants: retrospective, population based diagnostic evaluation (2021) · cites this paper as [35]

    The Discussion (p. 385) concludes that earlier positive associations between candidate genes and depression were false positives. It does not attribute those false associations to erroneous SNP-chip results in biobanks or discuss wasted resources developing treatments against wrong targets. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • One study indicated no support for depression candidate gene findings.

    “One study indicated no support for depression candidate gene findings [122].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [35]35. Munafò MR, Zammit S, Flint J: Limitations of gene 3 environment interaction models in psychiatry. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2014; 55:1092-1101
  2. [57]57. Miller S, Wain L, Shrine N, et al: The UK BiLEVE study: the first genetic study in UK Biobank identifies novel regions associated with airway obstruction and smoking behaviour. Presented at the American Thoracic Society 2015 International Conference. Avail- able in American Thoracic Society International Conference Abstracts, B31 Inflammation and COPD, 2015, p A2714. https:// www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/ajrccm-conference.2015.191.1_ MeetingAbstracts.A2714 · DOI

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Authors
Border, R., Johnson, E. C., Evans, L. M., Smolen, A., Berley, N., Sullivan, P. F., & Keller, M. C.
Affiliations
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
Venue
American Journal of Psychiatry
Published
2019-05-01
Volume
176
Issue
5
Pages
376-387
ISSN
  • 0002-953X (ISSN-L)
  • 1535-7228
OpenAlex
W2919957599
Cited by
629
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 53 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 68 · 2023: 84 · 2022: 87 · 2021: 111 · 2020: 118 · 2019: 56 · 2017: 1
FWCI
55.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
other-oa
Locations
  • American Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1532235, 1532236)
  • Pfizer
  • H. Lundbeck A/S
  • National Institute of Mental Health (U01MH109528, R01MH100141, U01MH109536, T32MH016880)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
Keywords
major depressive disorder, candidate genes, gene-environment interaction, genetic polymorphism, depression subtypes, childhood abuse, socioeconomic adversity, false positives, measurement error
MeSH terms
Psychological Trauma, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Major Depressive Disorder, Humans, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Genetic, Recurrence, Severity of Illness Index, Socioeconomic Factors, Reproducibility of Results, Genetic Association Studies, Gene-Environment Interaction

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