Schizophrenia genetic variants are not associated with intelligence

A. F.Terwisscha Van Scheltinga, S. C. Bakker, N. E.M. Van Haren, E. M. Derks, J. E. Buizer-Voskamp, W. Cahn, S. Ripke, R. A. Ophoff, R. S. Kahn, S. Ripke, A. R. Sanders, K. S. Kendler, D. F. Levinson, P. Sklar, P. A. Holmans, D. Y. Lin, J. Duan, R. A. Ophoff, O. A. Andreassen, E. ScolnickS. Cichon, D. St Clair, A. Corvin, H. Gurling, T. Werge, D. Rujescu, D. H.R. Blackwood, C. N. Pato, A. K. Malhotra, S. Purcell, F. Dudbridge, B. M. Neale, L. Rossin, P. M. Visscher, D. Posthuma, D. M. Ruderfer, A. Fanous, H. Stefansson, S. Steinberg, B. J. Mowry, V. Golimbet, M. De Hert, E. G. Jönsson, I. Bitter, O. P.H. Pietiläinen, D. A. Collier, S. Tosato, I. Agartz, M. Albus, M. Alexander, R. L. Amdur, F. Amin, N. Bass, S. E. Bergen, D. W. Black, A. D. Børglum, M. A. Brown, R. Bruggeman, N. G. Buccola, W. F. Byerley, W. Cahn, R. M. Cantor, V. J. Carr, S. V. Catts, K. Choudhury, C. R. Cloninger, P. Cormican, N. Craddock, P. A. Danoy, S. Datta, L. De Haan, D. Demontis, D. Dikeos, S. Djurovic, P. Donnelly, G. Donohoe, L. Duong, S. Dwyer, A. Fink-Jensen, R. Freedman, N. B. Freimer, M. Friedl, L. Georgieva, I. Giegling, M. Gill, B. Glenthøj, S. Godard, M. Hamshere, M. Hansen, T. Hansen, A. M. Hartmann, F. A. Henskens, D. M. Hougaard, C. M. Hultman, A. Ingason, A. V. Jablensky, K. D. Jakobsen, M. Jay, G. Jürgens, R. S. Kahn, M. C. Keller, G. Kenis, E. Kenny, Y. Kim, G. K. Kirov, H. Konnerth, B. Konte, L. Krabbendam, R. Krasucki, V. K. Lasseter, C. Laurent, J. Lawrence, T. Lencz, F. B. Lerer, K. Y. Liang, P. Lichtenstein, J. A. Lieberman, D. H. Linszen, J. Lönnqvist, C. M. Loughland, A. W. Maclean, B. S. Maher, W. Maier, J. Mallet, P. Malloy, M. Mattheisen, M. Mattingsdal, K. A. McGhee, J. J. McGrath, A. McIntosh, D. E. McLean, A. McQuillin, I. Melle, P. T. Michie, V. Milanova, D. W. Morris, O. Mors, P. B. Mortensen, V. Moskvina, P. Muglia, I. Myin-Germeys, D. A. Nertney, G. Nestadt, J. Nielsen, I. Nikolov, M. Nordentoft, N. Norton, M. M. Nöthen, C. T. O'Dushlaine, A. Olincy, L. Olsen, F. A. O'Neill, T. F. Ørntoft, M. J. Owen, C. Pantelis, G. Papadimitriou, M. T. Pato, L. Peltonen, H. Petursson, B. Pickard, J. Pimm, A. E. Pulver, V. Puri, D. Quested, E. M. Quinn, H. B. Rasmussen, J. M. Réthelyi, R. Ribble, M. Rietschel, B. P. Riley, M. Ruggeri, U. Schall, T. G. Schulze, S. G. Schwab, R. J. Scott, J. Shi, E. Sigurdsson, J. M. Silverman, C. C.A. Spencer, K. Stefansson, A. Strange, E. Strengman, T. S. Stroup, J. Suvisaari, L. Terenius, S. Thirumalai, J. H. Thygesen, S. Timm, D. Toncheva, E. Van Den Oord, J. Van Os, R. Van Winkel, J. Veldink, D. Walsh, A. G. Wang, D. Wiersma, D. B. Wildenauer, H. J. Williams, N. M. Williams, B. Wormley, S. Zammit, P. F. Sullivan, M. C. O'Donovan, M. J. Daly, P. V. Gejman

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    34 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Background Schizophrenia is associated with lower pre-morbid intelligence (IQ) in addition to (pre-morbid) cognitive decline. Both schizophrenia and IQ are highly heritable traits. Therefore, we hypothesized that genetic variants associated with schizophrenia, including copy number variants (CNVs) and a polygenic schizophrenia (risk) score (PSS), may influence intelligence. Method IQ was estimated with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). CNVs were determined from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data using the QuantiSNP and PennCNV algorithms. For the PSS, odds ratios for genome-wide SNP data were calculated in a sample collected by the Psychiatric Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) Consortium (8690 schizophrenia patients and 11 831 controls). These were used to calculate individual PSSs in our independent sample of 350 schizophrenia patients and 322 healthy controls. Results Although significantly more genes were disrupted by deletions in schizophrenia patients compared to controls (p = 0.009), there was no effect of CNV measures on IQ. The PSS was associated with disease status (R 2 = 0.055, p = 2.1 × 10 -7) and with IQ in the entire sample (R 2 = 0.018, p = 0.0008) but the effect on IQ disappeared after correction for disease status. Conclusions Our data suggest that rare and common schizophrenia-associated variants do not explain the variation in IQ in healthy subjects or in schizophrenia patients. Thus, reductions in IQ in schizophrenia patients may be secondary to other processes related to schizophrenia risk.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2563-2570
    Number of pages8
    JournalPsychological medicine
    Volume43
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Dec 2013

    Keywords

    • Cognition
    • IQ
    • SNP
    • deletion
    • duplication
    • endophenotype
    • polygenic

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