Specific Genes and Pregnancy Complications Interact to Increase Schizophrenia Risk

Familial risk for schizophrenia has been associated with early life complications (ELCs; NEJM JW Psychiatry Mar 2002 and Arch Gen Psychiatry 2002; 59:35), but the genetics of this association have been unknown. To fill this gap, researchers examined polygenic risk scores (PRS) for schizophrenia, gene expression, and ELCs.

In a U.S. discovery sample, the 234 patients with schizophrenia had higher PRS than the 267 healthy controls. Having severe ELCs was associated with schizophrenia risks that increased proportionally with increasingly higher PRS quintiles (i.e., the greater the risk for schizophrenia based on PRS, the stronger the association with ELCs). Differential expression of PRS genes that interacted with ELCs in people with schizophre…