Delineating genetic and familial risk for psychopathology in the ABCD study

Psychiatric disorders place a huge burden on those affected and their families, as well as society. Nearly all psychiatric disorders have a heritable component and lifetime prevalence rates of several disorders are higher among first degree biological relatives of individuals with a diagnosis. Given that many psychiatric disorders have their onset in adolescence, estimating genetic risk during childhood may identify at-risk individuals for early intervention that can reduce this burden. Here we measured genetic risk for psychopathology using both polygenic risk scores (PRS) and family history in a large typically developing sample of 9-10 year old children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) StudySM and determined associations with a large battery of behavioural phenotypes. By including all genetic risk predictors in the same model, we were able to delineate unique behavioral associations across these measures. Polygenic risk for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and depression (DEP) was associated with unique patterns of both externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Family history of conduct problems, depression and anxiety/stress additionally predicted unique behavioral variance across similar measures. These findings provide important insight into the potential predictive utility of PRS and family history in early adolescence and suggest that they may be signaling differential, additive information that could be useful for quantifying risk during development.