Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC)

"A contextual genomic perspective on physical activity and its relationship to health, well being and illness" led by Marco Galimberti at @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and US Dept. of Veterans Affairs is now online at Nature Genetics (@natureportfolio.nature.com)

Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

‪Attending the 2025 @behaviorgenetic.bsky.social Meeting in Atlanta? Be sure to check out some exciting work from members of the PGC-SUD working group:

‪Attending the @rsaofficial.bsky.social meeting in New Orleans? Be sure to check out some exciting work from members of the PGC-SUD working group:

New preprint alert 📢: First genome-wide significant loci identified for panic attacks and panic disorder

That’s a wrap for the #MDD & #Anxiety takeover, thanks for joining us! Special thank you to Outreach Committee Liaisons @karmelchoi.bsky.social (MDD) & @abiterkuile.bsky.social (Anxiety) and all post contributors.

(2/2) Genetic correlations between anxiety and depression were reduced (from .90 to .53) when non-shared genetics of depression and anxiety were separately analyzed.

Prevalent comorbidities may contribute to the genetic overlaps observed across conditions.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

(1/2) GWAS studies of anxiety and depression often include cases who have both, making it hard to tease apart genetic influences.

Tesfaye et al. recently showed how unaccounted comorbidity contributes to high genetic overlap in genome-wide studies.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

AMBER is a collaborative effort to identify the determinants of antidepressant response, by integrating genomic/cellular data, EHRs, and patient perspectives.

Check out this project and reach out to PI @cathrynlewis.bsky.social to learn more or collaborate!

www.kcl.ac.uk/research/amb...

Antidepressant Switching as a Proxy Phenotype for Drug Nonresponse: Investigating Clinical, Demographic, and Genetic Characteristics Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a first-line pharmacological therapy in major depressive disorder (MDD), but treatment response ra…

(2/n) People who switched drugs had similar polygenic profiles to those who did not respond to antidepressants in clinical studies.

Genetic factors that contribute to antidepressant response can differ from those that increase depression risk.

👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

(1/n) Can we use antidepressant patterns, captured by prescriptions, to assess whether (and why) treatment was effective?

Lo et al. studied patients who switched from first-line antidepressants to another antidepressant.

Switching can imply the drug was not effective for depression symptoms.

A Spotlight On: Genetics and Mental Health – Gerome Breen - Front Line Genomics Gerome Breen, Professor of Psychiatric Genetics, King’s College London talks about the genetics of mental health, depression and anxiety.

💬 Interested in learning more about @gladstudy.bsky.social? Check out this interview with Study Lead @psychgenomics.bsky.social & how this is a unique dataset to understand genetics & comorbidity between different types of anxiety & depressive disorders.

frontlinegenomics.com/a-spotlight-...

Prediction of antidepressant side effects in the Genetic Link to Anxiety and Depression Study Antidepressants are the most common treatment for moderate or severe depression. Side effects are crucial indicators for antidepressants, but their occurrence varies widely among individuals. In this ...

(3/n) 🧬 Genetic predictors, including polygenic scores for multiple disorders & drug metabolising genes, had minor impacts on predicting side effects (1.1%) and discontinuation (0.3%). Larger studies are needed to further explore genetic predictors.

doi.org/10.1101/2024...

(2/n) 💊 Antidepressant side effects & discontinuation history were the most influential predictors of future side effects & discontinuation. People who had side effects before were more likely to experience them again with future medications, suggesting consistency in drug responses.

(1/n) 🔍 Can we predict who will experience antidepressant side effects?

New study led by Danyang Li used machine learning in @gladstudy.bsky.social to predict side effects & discontinuation across SSRIs, SNRIs, and tricyclic antidepressants in over 4,000 participants.

(2/2) The UK Biobank asked participants if antidepressants had helped them, and 75% responded ‘yes’.

Those who responded positively about antidepressants were more likely to be female, to have higher incomes, and shorter episodes of depression.

(1/2) Most studies on antidepressants use data from clinical records or electronic health records.

What do different patients think about the antidepressants they took? 💭

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Identifying the Common Genetic Basis of Antidepressant Response Antidepressants are a first-line treatment for depression. However, only a third of individuals experience remission after the first treatment. Common…

Read the study here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@cathrynlewis.bsky.social @oliverpain.bsky.social

(2/2) Pain et al. analysed the genetics of 5000 participants who took antidepressants as part of clinical trials and research studies.

Response to antidepressants had a genetic component, but the study was too small to identify which specific variants contributed to response or non-response.

(1/2) Only one-third of people taking antidepressants for depression respond to the first drug they are prescribed and we know little about WHICH drug will work for each patient.

Day 4 of the 2nd Week of #MDD & #Anxiety takeover! How do genetic differences shape individual responses to treatment?This is what recent research has begun to investigate.. 💊

(4/4) Integrating #GWAS & #geneexpression data, Woodard et al identified drug mechanisms on targets enriched in anxiety genetic associations & reversed expression of those targets. This includes anxiolytics & novel drugs like sigma receptor and glutamate receptor agonists.

👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ps...

(3/4) In the recent PGC MDD GWAS, targets of drugs used to treat other conditions were enriched in MDD genetic associations, including anxiolytic pregabalin - aligning with MDD's high comorbidity & genetic overlap with anxiety.

bsky.app/profile/pgcg...

(2/4) Drug targets are proteins that medications act on. When genes encoding these targets show associations with other conditions, this suggests they could be 'repurposed' for new therapeutic uses.

(1/4) 🔬 How can we use #genetics to discover promising depression or anxiety drug targets?

Check out the drug repurposing approach in these two studies aiming to identify new anxiety & depression treatments to test and validate in further studies.

Day 3 of the 2nd Week of #MDD & #Anxiety takeover! Today, we're looking into how genetics could inform drug discovery for these common conditions.