Abstract
Non-suicidal and suicidal self-injury are very destructive, yet surprisingly common behaviours. Depressed mood is a major risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. We conducted a genetic risk prediction study to examine the polygenic overlap of depressive symptoms with lifetime NSSI, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts in a sample of 6237 Australian adult twins and their family members (3740 females, mean age = 42.4 years). Polygenic risk scores for depressive symptoms significantly predicted suicidal ideation, and some predictive ability was found for suicide attempts; the polygenic risk scores explained a significant amount of variance in suicidal ideation (lowest p = 0.008, explained variance ranging from 0.10 to 0.16 %) and, less consistently, in suicide attempts (lowest p = 0.04, explained variance ranging from 0.12 to 0.23 %). Polygenic risk scores did not significantly predict NSSI. Results highlight that individuals genetically predisposed to depression are also more likely to experience suicidal ideation/behaviour, whereas we found no evidence that this is also the case for NSSI.
Highlights
Non-suicidal and suicidal self-injury are very destructive, yet surprisingly common behaviours
Polygenic risk scores for depressive symptoms significantly predicted suicidal ideation, and some predictive ability was found for suicide attempts; the polygenic risk scores explained a significant amount of variance in suicidal ideation and, less consistently, in suicide attempts
The identification of specific genetic variants for depression and self-injurious behaviours has so far achieved limited success (Galfalvy et al 2011; Hek et al 2013; Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric 2013; Mullins et al 2014; Schosser et al 2011; Sokolowski et al 2014; Willour et al 2012), some single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) have been identified for major depression (Converge Consortium 2015) and depressive symptoms (Okbay et al 2016)
Summary
Non-suicidal and suicidal self-injury are very destructive, yet surprisingly common behaviours. The identification of specific genetic variants for depression and self-injurious behaviours has so far achieved limited success (Galfalvy et al 2011; Hek et al 2013; Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric 2013; Mullins et al 2014; Schosser et al 2011; Sokolowski et al 2014; Willour et al 2012), some SNPs have been identified for major depression (Converge Consortium 2015) and depressive symptoms (Okbay et al 2016) As both traits are substantially heritable, the association between depression and self-injurious behaviours may be partly due to overlapping genetic risk. Estimating the cumulative risk conferred by multiple risk alleles is referred to as polygenic risk scoring and has become increasingly popular for understanding both the genetic architecture of traits and the covariance between different traits (Dudbridge 2013)
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