Shared genetic background between children and adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Paula Rovira; Ditte Demontis; Cristina Sánchez‐Mora; Tetyana Zayats; Marieke Klein; Nina Roth Mota; Heike Weber; Iris Garcia-martinez A; Mireia Pagerols; Laura Vilar‐Ribó; Lorena Arribas; Vanesa Richarte B; Montse Corrales F; Christian Fadeuilhe; Rosa Bosch; Gemma Español‐Martín; Péter Zoltán Álmos; Alysa E. Doyle; Eugenio Horácio Grevet; Oliver Grimm; Anne Halmøy; Martine Hoogman; Mara Helena Hutz; Christian Jacob; Sarah Kittel‐Schneider; Per Morten Knappskog; Astri Johansen Lundervold; Olga Rivero; Diego Luiz Rovaris; Angélica Salatino‐Oliveira

doi:10.1038/s41386-020-0664-5

GeneticsNeuropsychopharmacologyApr 12, 2020

Peer-reviewed journal article

Shared genetic background between children and adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Paula Rovira iD, Ditte Demontis iD, Cristina Sánchez‐Mora iD, Tetyana Zayats iD, Marieke Klein iD, Nina Roth Mota iD, Heike Weber iD, Iris Garcia-martinez A iD, Mireia Pagerols iD, Laura Vilar‐Ribó iD, Lorena Arribas, Vanesa Richarte B iD, Montse Corrales F iD, Christian Fadeuilhe iD, Rosa Bosch iD, Gemma Español‐Martín iD, Péter Zoltán Álmos, Alysa E. Doyle iD, Eugenio Horácio Grevet iD, Oliver Grimm iD, Anne Halmøy iD, Martine Hoogman iD, Mara Helena Hutz iD, Christian Jacob iD, Sarah Kittel‐Schneider iD, , Marta Ribasés iD

Abstract

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by age-inappropriate symptoms of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity that persist into adulthood in the majority of the diagnosed children. Despite several risk factors during childhood predicting the persistence of ADHD symptoms into adulthood, the genetic architecture underlying the trajectory of ADHD over time is still unclear. We set out to study the contribution of common genetic variants to the risk for ADHD across the lifespan by conducting meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies on persistent ADHD in adults and ADHD in childhood separately and comparing the genetic background between them in a total sample of 17,149 cases and 32,411 controls. Our results show nine new independent loci and support a shared contribution of common genetic variants to ADHD in children and adults. No subgroup heterogeneity was observed among children, while this group consists of future remitting and persistent individuals. We report similar patterns of genetic correlation of ADHD with other ADHD-related datasets and different traits and disorders among adults, children and when combining both groups. These findings confirm that persistent ADHD in adults is a neurodevelopmental disorder and extend the existing hypothesis of a shared genetic architecture underlying ADHD and different traits to a lifespan perspective.

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