New data and an old puzzle: the negative association between schizophrenia and rheumatoid arthritis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A long-standing epidemiological puzzle is the reduced rate of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in those with schizophrenia (SZ) and vice versa. Traditional epidemiological approaches to determine if this negative association is underpinned by genetic factors would test for reduced rates of one disorder in relatives of the other, but sufficiently powered data sets are difficult to achieve. The genomics era presents an alternative paradigm for investigating the genetic relationship between two uncommon disorders.

Methods

We use genome-wide common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from independently collected SZ and RA case-control cohorts to estimate the SNP correlation between the disorders. We test a genotype X environment (GxE) hypothesis for SZ with environment

SUBMITTER: Lee SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4881824 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature