Researchers analyzed genome-wide association study data from more than 1 million participants across 14 psychiatric disorders and found broad shared genetic liability using linkage disequilibrium score regression and genomic structural equation modeling, with a 5-factor structure (schizophrenia–bipolar, internalizing, neurodevelopmental, compulsive, and substance use) explaining an average of about 66% of within-disorder genetic variance. Multivariate analyses identified 238 loci associated with one or more factors (including 27 broadly pleiotropic loci), and functional annotation suggested that shared risk was enriched in genes involved in gene regulation with higher expression during fetal and early brain development, with factor-level differences in implicated brain cell types.

Source: Nature