A team of researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Centre for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM) has published a pioneering study that reveals significant findings in the field of genetic psychiatry from the perspective of separate gender analysis. Firstly, the paper confirms the existence of a shared genetic vulnerability between schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder and major depression. In addition, and in an innovative way, the study highlights that this is more important in men than in women with schizophrenia.
This study, published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology , was co-led by professors Bárbara Arias and Araceli Rosa, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), and CIBERSAM. The first authors of the study are Marina Mitjans (UB-IBUB-CIBERSAM) and Sergi Papiol, also a member of CIBERSAM and researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (Germany). In this study, the authors analyzed a sample from CIBERSAM that included 1826 patients with psychosis and 1372 control patients.
The aim was to analyze how polygenic scores (PGS) for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder contribute to the risk of developing psychotic disorders, and how these associations differ between men and women. " Our results reinforce the hypothesis that there are common genetic factors that contribute to the risk of deve.
