Adam J Socrates, Niamh Mullins, Ruben C Gur, Raquel E Gur, Eli Stahl, Paul F O'Reilly, Abraham Reichenberg, Hannah Jones, Stanley Zammit, Eva Velthorst
Social isolation has been linked to a range of psychiatric issues, but the behavioral component that drives it is not well understood. Here, a genome-wide associations study (GWAS) was carried out to identify genetic variants that contribute specifically to social isolation behavior (SIB) in up to 449,609 participants from the UK Biobank. 17 loci were identified at genome-wide significance, contributing to a 4% SNP-based heritability estimate. Using the SIB GWAS, polygenic risk scores (PRS) were derived in ALSPAC, an independent, developmental cohort, and used to test for association with self-reported friendship scores, comprising items related to friendship quality and quantity, at age 12 and 18 to determine whether genetic predisposition manifests during childhood development...
May 30, 2024: Molecular Psychiatry