Publication date: May 27, 2025

The team focused on seven psychiatric disorders: depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. They also included a general P-factor, which represents a shared genetic liability across mental health conditions. They compared these datasets with two COVID-19 outcomes: confirmed infection and hospitalization. A new study published in Molecular Psychiatry reveals that some psychiatric disorders share genetic risk factors with COVID-19 infection and severity. But long before the virus disrupted daily life, researchers knew that people with psychiatric conditions tend to experience worse physical health outcomes in general. These regions contained genes involved in immune response, stress regulation, and thyroid function. One notable gene identified was THRA, which is involved in thyroid hormone signaling. Some of the psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and ADHD, may have lacked sufficient statistical power to detect certain effects. These studies identify common genetic variants that are more frequently found in individuals with specific traits or conditions.

Semantics