Shared genetic patterns found across 14 psychiatric disorders

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Psychiatric disorders share genetic variants that cluster into five main factors. Understanding shared biology could improve treatment, but more diverse genetic data urgently needed.

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Alcohol use disorder and IQ: Does social context matter?

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Recent research suggests that lower IQ and cognitive performance link to higher alcohol use disorder risk, but education and societal factors can amplify or reduce this vulnerability, not genetics alone.

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Is depression a cause or consequence? Using genetics to untangle causal relationships

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This study used Mendelian randomisation to test potential causal relationships between depression and 137 traits. Depression liability was linked to somatic diseases, inflammation, suicide risk, insomnia, lower cognitive function and functional impairments, though findings require validation.

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A new way of looking for mental health risk factors: the PsyRiskMR database

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PsyRiskMR is a new database that helps researchers investigate risk factors for common psychiatric disorders using Mendelian randomization.

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Recovery, relapse, and genetic risk: what 10,000 Danes taught us about eating disorder trajectories

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How often do people with eating disorders switch diagnoses, recover, or relapse? This large Danish study follows more than 10,000 people over nearly a decade, uncovering patterns of remission and genetic vulnerability that could help shape more personalised care.

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Genes, brains and self-harm: New study links adolescent risk to biology and disadvantage

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Self-harm is common among adolescents and a strong predictor of suicide risk. A major new cohort study in the British Journal of Psychiatry explores how genetic risk and brain differences might explain who’s most at risk, and why.

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Under the skin: How childhood maltreatment may trigger lifelong multimorbidity

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Why do people who were maltreated as children face higher risks of both mental and physical illness? A new Mendelian randomisation study suggests that metabolic markers — like triglycerides and blood sugar — may be part of the chain connecting adversity to later multimorbidity.

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