Validation of candidate genes associated with cardiovascular risk factors in psychiatric patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify genetic variants predictive of cardiovascular risk factors in a psychiatric population treated with second generation antipsychotics (SGA). 924 patients undergoing treatment for severe mental illness at four US hospitals were genotyped at 1.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms. Patients were assessed for fasting serum lipid (low density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDLc], high density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDLc], and triglycerides) and obesity phenotypes (body mass index, BMI). Thirteen candidate genes from previous studies of the same phenotypes in non-psychiatric populations were tested for association. We confirmed 8 of the 13 candidate genes at the 95% confidence level. An increased genetic effect size was observed for triglycerides in the psychiatric population compared to that in the cardiovascular population.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00752960.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Figures

Fig. 1

Comparison of association results with previously published studies in non-psychiatric patient populations. On the abscissa are p-values as reported by Willer et al. (2008, 2009). The ordinate corresponds to our association p-values.

Fig. 2

Effect sizes measured in all validated SNP associations, relative to the maximum effect size per phenotype. Effect size in the original study (ordinate) is plotted against effect size in our psychiatric population (abscissa).