Cited by 326Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchSchizophrenia research and treatmentGenetic Associations and Epidemiology

Genetic overlap between autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Open access
Carroll, Liam S, Owen, Michael J·2009·Genome Medicine

Abstract

There is strong evidence that genetic factors make substantial contributions to the etiology of autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, with heritability estimates being at least 80% for each. These illnesses have complex inheritance, with multiple genetic and environmental factors influencing disease risk; however, in psychiatry, complex genetics is further compounded by phenotypic complexity. Autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are effectively syndromic constellations of symptoms that define groups of patients with broadly similar outcomes and responses to treatment. As such the diagnostic categories are likely to be heterogeneous and the boundaries between them somewhat arbitrary. Recent applications of whole-genome technologies have discovered rare copy number variants and common single-nucleotide polymorphisms that are associated with risk of developing these disorders. Furthermore, these studies have shown an overlap between the genetic loci and even alleles that predispose to the different phenotypes. The findings have several implications. First, they show that copy number variations are likely to be important risk factors for autism and schizophrenia, whereas common single-nucleotide polymorphism alleles have a role in all disorders. Second, they imply that there are specific genetic loci and alleles that increase an individual's risk of developing any of these disorders. Finally, the findings suggest that some of the specific genetic loci implicated so far encode proteins, such as neurexins and neuroligins, that function in synaptic development and plasticity, and therefore may represent a common biological pathway for these disorders.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1186/gm102

Cites

76 of 76 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. McGuffin P Owen MJ Gottesman II Psychiatric Genetics & Genomics 2002 1 Oxford: Oxford University Press

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Carroll, L. S., & Owen, M. J.
Affiliations
Cardiff University (GB)
Corresponding author
Owen, Michael J
Venue
Genome Medicine
Published
2009
Volume
1
Issue
10
Pages
102
ISSN
1756-994X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2141881817
Cited by
326
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 23
FWCI
10.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Genome Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, genetic overlap, copy number variation, single nucleotide polymorphisms, genetic risk factors, heritability, diagnostic heterogeneity, neurexin, neuroligins, synaptic development, synaptic plasticity

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review