title: Polygenic risk scores in imaging genetics: Usefulness and applications.
abstract: Genetic factors account for up to 80% of the liability for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genes associated with increased risk for both disorders. Single SNP analyses alone do not address the overall genomic or polygenic architecture of psychiatric disorders as the amount of phenotypic variation explained by each GWAS-supported SNP is small whereas the number of SNPs/regions underlying risk for illness is thought to be very large. The polygenic risk score models the aggregate effect of alleles associated with disease status present in each individual and allows us to utilise the power of large GWAS to be applied robustly in small samples. Here we make the case that risk prediction, intervention and personalised medicine can only benefit with the inclusion of polygenic risk scores in imaging genetics research.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA danai.dima@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Danai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dima
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Gerome
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Breen
mesh_terms: D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance; D059906:Neuroimaging; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Imaging genetics; bipolar disorder; polygenic risk score; psychiatry; schizophrenia