Genome Wide Association Studies of Suicide Attempts in US Soldiers

• Activity Number: 498 - Designs and Statistical Methods Used in Genetics and Mental Health for Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS)
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Mental Health Statistics Section
• Author(s): Erin Ware* and Murray B. Stein and Colter M Mitchell and Chia-Yen Chen and Jordan W Smoller
• Companies: and UCSD and University of Michigan and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Harvard Medical School
• Keywords: genetics; mental health; psychiatric genetics; military; genome wide association study; suicide attempt

Abstract

Stein MB, Ware EB, Mitchell C, Chen CY, Borja S, Cai T, Dempsey CL, Fullerton CS, Gelernter J, Heeringa SG, Jain S, Kessler RC, Naifeh JA, Nock MK, Ripke S, Sun X, Beckham JC, Kimbrel NA, VA Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center Workgroup, Ursano RJ, Smoller JW. (2017). Genomewide association studies of suicide attempts in US soldiers. Am J Med Genet. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics, 174(8), 786-797. Suicide is a global public health problem with particular resonance for the US military. Genetic risk factors for suicidality may be indicators of susceptibility and potential targets for intervention. We utilized population-based nonclinical cohorts of US military personnel (discovery: n=473 case/n=9778 control; replication: n=135/6879) and a clinical case-control sample of recent suicide attempters (n=51/112) to conduct GWAS of suicide attempts. Meta-analysis of the European discovery samples revealed a genome-wide significant locus near MRAP2 and CEP162 (rs12524136-T, OR=2.88, p=5.24E-10). The peak SNP replicated in a meta-analysis of all studies (OR=2.18, 95%CI 1.70, 2.80). This region warrants further study as a susceptibility gene for suicidality.