First Genome-Wide Significant Loci Associated with ADHD Identified

this article published by the Guardian on Monday the 26th states that a major breakthrough has been made in regards to the genetic variants that increase the risk of ADHD. The original study The study the first genome-wide significant risk loci and indicates an important role for common variants in the polygenic architecture of ADHD. Future work is going to be needed to find the strong source of association in each loci, but this is a breakthrough nonetheless. In the past it was hard to really pinpoint any source of ADHD because many of the genes thought to be involved increased the risk by a small degree. This is the first time that genome wide significant loci associated with ADHD has been identified. Some of the revelations of the study were already predicted such as the association with ADHD and other neurological conditions such as insomnia to schizophrenia. So in a GWAS meta-analysis of over 55,000 individuals over 12 study cohorts they were able to identify 12 locus that could be deemed significant risk loci. The results of this study not only hope to shed light on the biological factors associated with ADHD and hopefully be able to develop new drugs for ADHD (which is largely trial and error) and to encourage a dimensional view of ADHD and some argue that this could help destigmatize it too.



Seeran Enayet