Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Constitutional thinness and anorexia nervosa are both characterised by persistent, extremely low weight with body mass indices (BMI) below 18.5 kg/m 2 . Individuals with anorexia nervosa concurrently show distorted perceptions of their own body and engage in weight-loss behaviours, whereas individuals with constitutional thinness typically wish to gain weight. Both are heritable, share genomics with BMI, but have not been shown to be genetically correlated with each other. We aim to differentiate between constitutional thinness and anorexia nervosa on a genomic level. First, we estimated genetic correlations between constitutional thinness and eleven psychiatric disorders and compared them with anorexia nervosa using publicly available data. Second, we identified individuals with constitutional thinness in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) by latent class growth analysis of measured BMI from 10 to 24 years ( n = 8,505) and assigned polygenic scores for eleven psychiatric disorders and a range of anthropometric traits to evaluate associations. In contrast to anorexia nervosa, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( r gAN = 0.02 vs. r gCT = −0.24) and alcohol dependence ( r gAN = 0.07 vs. r gCT = −0.44) showed a statistically significant negative genetic correlation with constitutional thinness. A higher polygenic score for posttraumatic stress disorder was associated with an increased risk of constitutional thinness in the ALSPAC cohort (OR = 1.27; Q = 0.03) whereas posttraumatic stress disorder shows no genetic correlation with anorexia nervosa ( r g = −0.02). Overall, results suggest that constitutional thinness is different from anorexia nervosa on the genomic level.
Institutions: King's College London, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Aarhus University, Karolinska Institutet, National Institute for Health and Care Research, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of Geneva, University of Copenhagen, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mental Health Services, Capital Region of Denmark, University College London, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,690
Funders: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Klarman Family Foundation, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Wellcome Trust, Maudsley Charity, National Institute for Health and Care Research, King's College London, University of Bristol, Lundbeckfonden, Vetenskapsrådet, H. Lundbeck A/S, National Institutes of Health, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute of Mental Health
Awards: G103800658, G1181994271, G1192034430, G1375331873, Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI), G1684393010, G1793884970, G2024575111, G2082591074, G211885902, G2417586468, Empirical eating disorder classification and validation using prospective studies, 1/7 Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Finding actionable variation, G2953470886, G303339423, G3115719214, G3197369316, G3298186876, G3345452146, G3507283293, The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC): A multi- generation, longitudinal resource focusing on life course health and well- being., G3831911591, G395765120, G3964009410, G3987754321, G4034426326, G4134764281, Predicting Binge and Purge Episodes from Passive and Active Apple Watch Data Using a Dynamical Systems Approach, G4670273794, G5012122282, G5162486390, G5197328387, G5235218188, G5313676757, G5408826359, G5429586119, G5562631338, Premorbid metabolism and growth in anorexia nervosa: A genetically informed exploration of risk, G5786833328, G5789614150, G6357279320, G6652368163, The developmental role of metabolism, appetite and growth in eating disorders: exploring novel longitudinal risk pathways, G712881263, G7621641491, G7679553617, G7828794151, Predicting the multi-omic impact of psychiatric GWAS associations, The power of the environment: Environmental mediation of genetic liability, G8069300346, G8652487745, G8923458113, 1/7 PGC: Advancing Discovery and Impact
OpenAlex ID: W4384923906