Polygenic risk for schizophrenia and season of birth within the UK Biobank cohort.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is strong evidence that people born in winter and in spring have a small increased risk of schizophrenia. As this 'season of birth' effect underpins some of the most influential hypotheses concerning potentially modifiable risk exposures, it is important to exclude other possible explanations for the phenomenon.

Methods

Here we sought to determine whether the season of birth effect reflects gene-environment confounding rather than a pathogenic process indexing environmental exposure. We directly measured, in 136 538 participants from the UK Biobank (UKBB), the burdens of common schizophrenia risk alleles and of copy number variants known to increase the risk for the disorder, and tested whether these were correlated with a season of birth.

Results

Nei

SUBMITTER: Escott-Price V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7610956 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature