They identify sexual differences in genetic vulnerability to psychotic disorders

In a new study, significant findings have been made in the field of genetic psychiatry from the perspective of separate gender analysis. Firstly, the work confirms the existence of a shared genetic vulnerability between schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder and major depression. Furthermore, and in a novel way, the study highlights that this genetic load has a greater weight in men than in women with schizophrenia.

This work is the work of a team made up of, among others, Bárbara Arias, Araceli Rosa and Marina Mitjans, from the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), and the Center for Biomedical Research in Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM), in Spain, as well as Sergi Papiol, also a member of CIBERSAM and researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany.

The authors of the new study analyzed a sample from CIBERSAM that included 1,826 patients with psychosis and 1,372 control patients. The objective was to analyze how polygenic scores (PGS) of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder contribute to the risk of developing psychotic disorders, and how these associations differ between men and women.

“Our results reinforce the hypothesis that there are common genetic factors that contribute to the risk of developing these disorders, which suggests the existence of a shared biological basis between them,” comments Marina Mitjans.

Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that there are differences between men and women in genetic vulnerability to psychotic disorders, which could have important implications for understanding the sex differences observed in prevalence, clinical presentation and response to treatment. “Our study highlights the importance of considering sex differences in genetic studies to develop more personalized strategies in prevention, diagnosis and treatment in clinical practice,” comments Bárbara Arias.

From left to right, the researchers Araceli Rosa, Marina Mitjans and Bárbara Arias at the Faculty of Biology of the UB. (Photo: UB)

The study is titled “Shared vulnerability and sex-dependent polygenic burden in psychotic disorders.” And it has been published in the academic journal European Neuropsychopharmacology. (Source: CIBER)