Abstract
Risk-taking behaviour is a key component of several psychiatric disorders and could influence lifestyle choices such as smoking, alcohol use, and diet. As a phenotype, risk-taking behaviour therefore fits within a Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach, whereby identifying genetic determinants of this trait has the potential to improve our understanding across different psychiatric disorders. Here we report a genome-wide association study in 116,255 UK Biobank participants who responded yes/no to the question “Would you consider yourself a risk taker?” Risk takers (compared with controls) were more likely to be men, smokers, and have a history of psychiatric disorder. Genetic loci associated with risk-taking behaviour were identified on chromosomes 3 (rs13084531) and 6 (rs9379971). The effects of both lead SNPs were comparable between men and women. The chromosome 3 locus highlights CADM2, previously implicated in cognitive and executive functions, but the chromosome 6 locus is challenging to interpret due to the complexity of the HLA region. Risk-taking behaviour shared significant genetic risk with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as with smoking and total obesity. Despite being based on only a single question, this study furthers our understanding of the biology of risk-taking behaviour, a trait that has a major impact on a range of common physical and mental health disorders.
Highlights
1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; Introduction Risk-taking behaviour is an important aspect of several psychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)[1,2] and bipolar disorder (BD)[3], as well as problem behaviours such as smoking and drug and alcohol misuse[4,5]
For all analyses, small but consistent differences were observed between controls and risk takers with regard to age and body mass index (BMI) (Table 1), but striking differences were observed for sex distribution, smoking, and history of mood disorders: risk takers were more often men, more likely to be current or ever-smokers and more likely to suffer from depression, report an addiction or to have used cannabis
It is perhaps unsurprising that we identified genetic correlations between risk taking and smoking
Summary
Risk-taking behaviour is an important aspect of several psychiatric disorders, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)[1,2] and bipolar disorder (BD)[3], as well as problem behaviours such as smoking and drug and alcohol misuse[4,5]. The link between risk-taking behaviour and schizophrenia (SCZ) is more complex, with difficulties in conditional reasoning[6], problems with delayed gratification and poor impulse control occurring alongside more conservative risk assessment[7]. Physical health problems such as obesity might be considered to be related to increased propensity towards risk taking: obesity includes aspects of aberrant reward processing, response inhibition, and decision making[8]. Strawbridge et al Translational Psychiatry (2018)8:39 for identifying biology, which cuts across psychiatric diagnoses[9] In this respect, risk-taking behaviour is an important phenotype for investigation. It may be useful for investigating the overlap between psychiatric disorders and conditions such as obesity and smoking
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