Clinical segmentation in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: Cognitive impairments and additional genetic load

Abstract

The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is associated with high psychiatric morbidity. However, large phenotypic heterogeneity hampers early detection of 22q11.2DS individuals at highest risk. Here, we investigated whether individuals with 22q11.2DS can be subdivided into clinically relevant subgroups based on their severity of cognitive impairments and whether such subgroups differ in polygenic risk. Using a cross-sectional design, we examined the number of lifetime psychiatric diagnoses and polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia in an unselected nationwide biobank cohort of individuals with 22q11.2DS (n = 183). Approximately 35% of this sample, aged 10–30 years, had a history with one or more psychiatric diagnosis. In a representative nested subgroup of 28 children and youth, we performed additional comprehensive cognitive evaluation and assessed psychiatric symptoms. Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to divide the subgroup of 22q11.2DS individuals, based on their performance on the cognitive testing battery. This produced two groups that did not differ in mean age or gender composition, but were characterized by low cognitive (LF) and high cognitive (HF) functional levels. The LF group, which had significantly lower global cognitive functioning scores, also displayed higher negative symptom scores; whereas, the HF group displayed lower rate of current psychiatric disorders than the LF group and the reminder of the biobank cohort. The polygenic risk score for schizophrenia was insignificantly lower for the low functioning group than for the high functioning group, after adjustment. Cognitive functioning may provide useful information on psychiatric risk.