title: Genetic predisposition to schizophrenia associated with increased use of cannabis.
abstract: Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug worldwide. With debate surrounding the legalization and control of use, investigating its health risks has become a pressing area of research. One established association is that between cannabis use and schizophrenia, a debilitating psychiatric disorder affecting ~1% of the population over their lifetime. Although considerable evidence implicates cannabis use as a component cause of schizophrenia, it remains unclear whether this is entirely due to cannabis directly raising risk of psychosis, or whether the same genes that increases psychosis risk may also increase risk of cannabis use. In a sample of 2082 healthy individuals, we show an association between an individual's burden of schizophrenia risk alleles and use of cannabis. This was significant both for comparing those who have ever versus never used cannabis (P=2.6 × 10(-4)), and for quantity of use within users (P=3.0 × 10(-3)). Although directly predicting only a small amount of the variance in cannabis use, these findings suggest that part of the association between schizophrenia and cannabis is due to a shared genetic aetiology. This form of gene-environment correlation is an important consideration when calculating the impact of environmental risk factors, including cannabis use.
authors: 1] MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK [2] Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
authors: R A
authors: RA
authors: Power
authors: Department of Developmental Psychology and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: K J H
authors: KJ
authors: Verweij
authors: MRC Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Zuhair
authors: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: G W
authors: GW
authors: Montgomery
authors: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: A K
authors: AK
authors: Henders
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
authors: A C
authors: AC
authors: Heath
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA.
authors: P A F
authors: PA
authors: Madden
authors: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: S E
authors: SE
authors: Medland
authors: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
authors: N R
authors: NR
authors: Wray
authors: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: N G
authors: NG
authors: Martin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D012042:Registries; D012306:Risk; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult