Polygenic overlap between subjective well-being and psychiatric disorders and cross-ancestry validation

Abstract

Subjective well-being (SWB) is important for understanding human behaviour and health. Although the connection between SWB and psychiatric disorders has been studied, common genetic mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the genetic relationship between SWB and psychiatric disorders. Bivariate causal mixture modelling (MiXeR), polygenic risk score (PRS) and Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses showed substantial polygenic overlap and associations between SWB and the psychiatric disorders. Subsequent replication studies in East Asian populations confirmed the polygenic overlap between schizophrenia and SWB. The conditional and conjunctional false discovery rate analyses identified additional or shared genetic loci associated with SWB or psychiatric disorders. Functional annotation revealed enrichment of specific brain tissues and genes associated with SWB. The identified genetic loci showed cross-ancestry transferability between the European and Korean populations. Our findings provide valuable insights into the common genetic mechanisms underlying SWB and psychiatric disorders. Jung et al. show the existence of polygenic overlap and associations between subjective well-being and psychiatric disorders.