Cancelled: Division of Psychiatry seminar

Title: Exploring the association between age-at-onset of disease and polygenic burden in bipolar disorder

Presenter: Annamaria Balogh, winner of the prize for best overall marks on the MSc Mental Health Sciences course

The investigation of genetic risk factors for bipolar disorder has been hindered by its clinical heterogeneity. Studies have attempted to identify more homogeneous subgroups within bipolar disorder by looking at age-at-onset of disorder, with mixed findings. Our study had two aims: First, we investigated age-at-onset distribution in bipolar disorder in the largest sample to date (N=1504, recruited from England). Second, we examined the association between age-at-onset and genetic liability to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia using polygenic risk scores. Our results provide further evidence for three distinct age-at-onset distributions in bipolar disorder. We also found preliminary evidence that early-onset bipolar disorder may be genetically different from late-onset bipolar disorder. Specifically, we found weak evidence for lower mean schizophrenia polygenic risk score in late-onset bipolar disorder compared to early-onset bipolar disorder. Therefore, stratifying individuals into age-at-onset subgroups may be useful in future research on the aetiology and outcomes of bipolar disorder.

This talk is part of the UCL Division of Psychiatry seminar series. No booking is required.