Association between genetic and socioenvironmental risk for schizophrenia during upbringing in a UK longitudinal cohort

Joanne Newbury, Louise Arseneault, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, Candice Odgers, Daniel W. Belsky, Karen Sugden, Benjamin Williams, Antony Ambler, Timothy Matthews, Helen Fisher

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)
125 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

BackgroundAssociations of socioenvironmental features like urbanicity and neighborhood deprivation with psychosis are well-established. An enduring question, however, is whether these associations are causal. Genetic confounding could occur due to downward mobility of individuals at high genetic risk for psychiatric problems into disadvantaged environments.MethodsWe examined correlations of five indices of genetic risk [polygenic risk scores (PRS) for schizophrenia and depression, maternal psychotic symptoms, family psychiatric history, and zygosity-based latent genetic risk] with multiple area-, neighborhood-, and family-level risks during upbringing. Data were from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally-representative cohort of 2232 British twins born in 1994-1995 and followed to age 18 (93% retention). Socioenvironmental risks included urbanicity, air pollution, neighborhood deprivation, neighborhood crime, neighborhood disorder, social cohesion, residential mobility, family poverty, and a cumulative environmental risk scale. At age 18, participants were privately interviewed about psychotic experiences.ResultsHigher genetic risk on all indices was associated with riskier environments during upbringing. For example, participants with higher schizophrenia PRS (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.06-1.33), depression PRS (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.08-1.34), family history (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.11-1.40), and latent genetic risk (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.07-1.38) had accumulated more socioenvironmental risks for schizophrenia by age 18. However, associations between socioenvironmental risks and psychotic experiences mostly remained significant after covariate adjustment for genetic risk.ConclusionGenetic risk is correlated with socioenvironmental risk for schizophrenia during upbringing, but the associations between socioenvironmental risk and adolescent psychotic experiences appear, at present, to exist above and beyond this gene-environment correlation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-11
JournalPsychological Medicine
Volume0
Issue number0
Early online date25 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 25 Sept 2020

Keywords

  • Childhood and adolescence
  • family psychiatric history
  • gene-environment correlation
  • neighborhood
  • polygenic risk scores
  • psychosis
  • social drift
  • urbanicity

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