Personality Disorders Genomics Group

The Personality Disorders Genomics Group brings together researchers working or interested in working on projects to study the genetics of personality disorders.

Our vision

Our vision is to further extend research on the genetics of personality disorders and to facilitate the connections and synergies between different research groups. The working group is a platform to exchange ideas on this topic and facilitate collaborations.


Meetings

This group was created at the World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics in Los Angeles, US in October 2019. The agenda for our meetings usually includes presentations and updates from members and invited speakers.

October 12th 2023

October 12th 2023, 11.30am in person meeting at the 31st World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics (WCPG), in Montreal, Canada, with the presentation:

  • “Genetic Risk Variants Associated with Antisocial Personality Disorder in the Context of Alcohol Dependence” by Ayden Lee
  • “Genome-wide association study of Borderline Personality Disorder identifies a risk locus in the FOXP2 gene, and reveals shared genetic risk with other mental disorders and risk factors” by Fabian Streit
  • “GWAS of borderline personality disorder accounting for family history and age-at-onset in iPSYCH” by Alisha Hall
February 22nd 2023

February 22nd 2023, 5pm CET / 11am EDT / 2am AEST, with the presentation:

  • “Comorbidity patterns and genetic underpinnings of avoidant personality disorder –– update from MoBa” by Martin Tesli
September 27th 2022

September 27th 2022, 5pm CET / 11am EDT / 2am AEST, with the presentation:

  • “Upcoming Project: Genetics of borderline personality disorder and its associations with other psychiatric disorders and adverse childhood experiences.” by Katherine Musliner
  • “The Revived Genomics of Personality Consortium (ReGPC)” by Ted Schwaba
January 24th 2022

January 24th 2022, 5pm CET / 11am EDT / 2am AEST, with the presentation:

  • “Genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) of impulsive personality in 23andMe research participants of European ancestry (n=123,509-133,517)” by Sandra Sanchez-Roige
September 29th 2021

September 29th 2021, 11am EDT, 4pm BST/ 5pm CEST / 1am AEST, with the presentations:

  • “Genetics of Personality Disorders: Selected Results from a Population-Based, Longitudinal Twin Study” by Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud
  • “Reconceptualizing Borderline Personality Disorder from the perspective of dimensional models of psychopathology” by Johannes Zimmermann
February 1st 2021

February 1st 2021, 11am EST / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET / 2am AEST with the presentations:

  • “GWAS of ASPD in the context of alcohol dependence syndrome provides evidence for shared risk factors across disorders” by Ayden Lee
  • “An Update from the Externalizing Consortium: Identifying genes related to behavioral undercontrol” by Paige Harden
October 16th 2020

October 16th 2020, 2pm EDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST / 4am AEST, with the presentations:

  • “Personality disorders in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa)” by Martin Tesli
  • “Broad Antisocial Behavior Consortium (Broad ABC)” by Jorim Tielbeek
  • “Genetics of Personality Disorders Borderline case-control GWAS” by Fabian Streit and Stephanie Witt
  • “Borderline personality traits – update” by Lucía Colodro-Conde
October 31st 2019

October 31st 2019, 8 am, Los Angeles, with the presentation:

  • “Genetics of Personality Disorders” by Fabian Streit, Stephanie Witt and Lucía Colodro-Conde

Group Coordinators

Lucía Colodro Conde

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

Fabian Streit

Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim

Stephanie Witt

Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim


Members and publications

Our members, and relevant publications of the members in genomics of personality disorders.

Members
  • Abraham Palmer, University of California San Diego, San Diego, USA
  • Alexandra Havdahl, Norwegian institute of public health and University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • Alisha Hall, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
  • Arianna Di Florio, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
  • Benjamin Hummelen, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
  • Chi-Hua Chen, University of California, San Diego, USA
  • Dorret Boomsma, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Eirini Marouli, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • Elizabeth Corfield, Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
  • Fabian Streit, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
  • Gabriele Christine Koller, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
  • Gustavo Turecki, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal,Canada
  • Guy Frederick Lanyon Hindley, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway and King’s College London, London, UK
  • Hilary Coon, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City ,USA
  • Isabell Brikell, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
  • Jaakko Kaprio, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • Jenna Traynor, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
  • Jim Kennedy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Jorim Tielbeek, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • Katherine Musliner, Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital-Psychiatry, Aarhus, Denmark
  • Kelli Lehto, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
  • Lea Sirignano, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
  • Lea Zillich, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
  • Lois Choi-Kain, McLean Hospital, Belmont,USA
  • Lucia Colodro Conde, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
  • Marcella Rietschel, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
  • Marta Ribases, Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron and Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Biomedical Network Research Centre on Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain
  • Martin Tesli, University of Oslo and Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
  • Nader Perroud, Hôpitaux Universitaires, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Nick Martin, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
  • Richard Musil, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Sarah Medland, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
  • Sebastian Euler, Klinik für Konsiliarpsychiatrie und Psychosomatik, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Shelley McMain, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Stephanie Witt, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany
  • Sudan Prasad Neupane, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway and Oral Health Center of Expertise in Rogaland, Stavanger, Norway
  • Swapnil Awasthi , Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, USA, and Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Charité – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
  • Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
  • Ted Schwaba, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
  • Vanessa Nieratschker, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
  • Wenqianglong Li (Ayden Lee), University College London, London, UK
Publications
  • Andreassen, O. A., Hindley, G. F., Frei, O., & Smeland, O. B. (2023). New insights from the last decade of research in psychiatric genetics: discoveries, challenges and clinical implications. World Psychiatry, 22(1), 4-24.
  • Hindley, G., Frei, O., Shadrin, A. A., Cheng, W., O’Connell, K. S., Icick, R., … & Andreassen, O. A. (2022). Charting the landscape of genetic overlap between mental disorders and related traits beyond genetic correlation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 179(11), 833-843.
  • Streit, F., Witt, S. H., Awasthi, S., Foo, J. C., Jungkunz, M., Frank, J., … & Andreassen, O. A. (2022). Borderline personality disorder and the big five: molecular genetic analyses indicate shared genetic architecture with neuroticism and openness. Translational psychiatry, 12(1), 1-8.
  • Hindley, G., Shadrin, A., der Meer, D. v., Parker, N., Cheng, W., O’Connell, K. S., Bahrami, S., Lin, A., Karadag, N., Holen, B., Bjella, T., Fan, C. C., Ueland, T., Djurovic, S., Smeland, O. B., Frei, O., Dale, A. M., & Andreassen, O. A. (2022). Multivariate genetic analysis of personality and cognitive traits reveals abundant pleiotropy and improves prediction. bioRxiv, 2022.2002.2028.481967. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.28.481967
  • Sanchez-Roige, S., Jennings, M. V., Thorpe, H. H. A., Mallari, J. E., van der Werf, L., Bianchi, S. B., Huang, Y., Lee, C., Mallard, T. T., Barnes, S. A., Wu, J. Y., Barkley-Levenson, A. M., Boussaty, E. C., Snethlage, C., Babic, Z., Winters, B. D., Watters, K. E., Biederer, T., andMe Research, T., . . . Palmer, A. A. (2022). CADM2 is implicated in impulsive personality traits by genome- and phenome-wide association studies in humans, with further support from studies of Cadm2 mutant mice. medRxiv, 2022.2001.2029.22270095. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.29.22270095
  • Dennis, J., Sealock, J., Levinson, R. T., Farber-Eger, E., Franco, J., Fong, S., Straub, P., Hucks, D., Song, W. L., Linton, M. F., Fontanillas, P., Elson, S. L., Ruderfer, D., Abdellaoui, A., Sanchez-Roige, S., Palmer, A. A., Boomsma, D. I., Cox, N. J., Chen, G., . . . Davis, L. K. (2021). Genetic risk for major depressive disorder and loneliness in sex-specific associations with coronary artery disease. Mol Psychiatry, 26(8), 4254-4264. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0614-y
  • Heilbronner, U., Streit, F., Vogl, T., Senner, F., Schaupp, S., Reich-Erkelenz, D., . . . Schulte, E. (2021). Interplay between the genetics of personality traits, severe psychiatric disorders and COVID-19 host genetics in the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. BJPsych Open, 7(6), E188.
  • Hindley, G., O’Connell, K. S., Rahman, Z., Frei, O., Bahrami, S., Shadrin, A. A., … & Andreassen, O. (2021). Genome-wide association analysis reveals extensive genetic overlap between mood instability and psychiatric disorders but divergent patterns of genetic effects. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.16.21260608
  • Karlsson Linnér, R., Mallard, T. T., Barr, P. B., Sanchez-Roige, S., Madole, J. W., Driver, M. N., Poore, H. E., de Vlaming, R., Grotzinger, A. D., Tielbeek, J. J., Johnson, E. C., Liu, M., Rosenthal, S. B., Ideker, T., Zhou, H., Kember, R. L., Pasman, J. A., Verweij, K. J. H., Liu, D. J., . . . Dick, D. M. (2021). Multivariate analysis of 1.5 million people identifies genetic associations with traits related to self-regulation and addiction. Nat Neurosci, 24(10), 1367-1376. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00908-3
  • Gustavson, D. E., Friedman, N. P., Fontanillas, P., Elson, S. L., Palmer, A. A., & Sanchez-Roige, S. (2020). The Latent Genetic Structure of Impulsivity and Its Relation to Internalizing Psychopathology. Psychol Sci, 31(8), 1025-1035. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620938160
  • Schermer, J. A., Colodro-Conde, L., Grasby, K. L., Hickie, I. B., Burns, J., Ligthart, L., Willemsen, G., Trull, T. J., Martin, N. G., & Boomsma, D. I. (2020). Genetic and Environmental Causes of Individual Differences in Borderline Personality Disorder Features and Loneliness are Partially Shared. Twin Res Hum Genet, 23(4), 214-220. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2020.62
  • Sanchez-Roige, S., Fontanillas, P., Elson, S. L., Gray, J. C., de Wit, H., MacKillop, J., & Palmer, A. A. (2019). Genome-Wide Association Studies of Impulsive Personality Traits (BIS-11 and UPPS-P) and Drug Experimentation in up to 22,861 Adult Research Participants Identify Loci in the CACNA1I and CADM2 genes. J Neurosci, 39(13), 2562-2572. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2662-18.2019
  • Sanchez-Roige, S., Fontanillas, P., Elson, S. L., Pandit, A., Schmidt, E. M., Foerster, J. R., Abecasis, G. R., Gray, J. C., de Wit, H., Davis, L. K., MacKillop, J., & Palmer, A. A. (2018). Genome-wide association study of delay discounting in 23,217 adult research participants of European ancestry. Nat Neurosci, 21(1), 16-18. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-017-0032-x
  • Lo, M. T., Hinds, D. A., Tung, J. Y., Franz, C., Fan, C. C., Wang, Y., Smeland, O. B., Schork, A., Holland, D., Kauppi, K., Sanyal, N., Escott-Price, V., Smith, D. J., O’Donovan, M., Stefansson, H., Bjornsdottir, G., Thorgeirsson, T. E., Stefansson, K., McEvoy, L. K., . . . Chen, C. H. (2017). Genome-wide analyses for personality traits identify six genomic loci and show correlations with psychiatric disorders. Nat Genet, 49(1), 152-156. https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3736
  • Smeland, O. B., Wang, Y., Lo, M. T., Li, W., Frei, O., Witoelar, A., Tesli, M., Hinds, D. A., Tung, J. Y., Djurovic, S., Chen, C. H., Dale, A. M., & Andreassen, O. A. (2017). Identification of genetic loci shared between schizophrenia and the Big Five personality traits. Sci Rep, 7(1), 2222. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02346-3
  • Witt, S. H., Streit, F., Jungkunz, M., Frank, J., Awasthi, S., Reinbold, C. S., Treutlein, J., Degenhardt, F., Forstner, A. J., Heilmann-Heimbach, S., Dietl, L., Schwarze, C. E., Schendel, D., Strohmaier, J., Abdellaoui, A., Adolfsson, R., Air, T. M., Akil, H., Alda, M., . . . Rietschel, M. (2017). Genome-wide association study of borderline personality disorder reveals genetic overlap with bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia. Transl Psychiatry, 7(6), e1155. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2017.115
  • Laurin, C., Boomsma, D., & Lubke, G. (2016). The use of vector bootstrapping to improve variable selection precision in Lasso models. Stat Appl Genet Mol Biol, 15(4), 305-320. https://doi.org/10.1515/sagmb-2015-0043
  • Lubke, G. H., Ouwens, K. G., de Moor, M. H., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2015). Population heterogeneity of trait anger and differential associations of trait anger facets with borderline personality features, neuroticism, depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and alcohol problems. Psychiatry Res, 230(2), 553-560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.10.003
  • Lubke, G. H., Laurin, C., Amin, N., Hottenga, J. J., Willemsen, G., van Grootheest, G., Abdellaoui, A., Karssen, L. C., Oostra, B. A., van Duijn, C. M., Penninx, B. W., & Boomsma, D. I. (2014). Genome-wide analyses of borderline personality features. Mol Psychiatry, 19(8), 923-929. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.109
  • Carpenter, R. W., Tomko, R. L., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2013). Gene-environment studies and borderline personality disorder: a review. Curr Psychiatry Rep, 15(1), 336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-012-0336-1
  • Distel, M. A., Roeling, M. P., Tielbeek, J. J., van Toor, D., Derom, C. A., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2012). The covariation of trait anger and borderline personality: a bivariate twin-siblings study. J Abnorm Psychol, 121(2), 458-466. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026393
  • Distel, M. A., Trull, T. J., de Moor, M. M., Vink, J. M., Geels, L. M., van Beek, J. H., Bartels, M., Willemsen, G., Thiery, E., Derom, C. A., Neale, M. C., & Boomsma, D. I. (2012). Borderline personality traits and substance use: genetic factors underlie the association with smoking and ever use of cannabis, but not with high alcohol consumption. J Pers Disord, 26(6), 867-879. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2012.26.6.867
  • Distel, M. A., Carlier, A., Middeldorp, C. M., Derom, C. A., Lubke, G. H., & Boomsma, D. I. (2011). Borderline personality traits and adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms: a genetic analysis of comorbidity. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet, 156b(7), 817-825. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.31226
  • Distel, M. A., Middeldorp, C. M., Trull, T. J., Derom, C. A., Willemsen, G., & Boomsma, D. I. (2011). Life events and borderline personality features: the influence of gene-environment interaction and gene-environment correlation. Psychol Med, 41(4), 849-860. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291710001297
  • Distel, M. A., Willemsen, G., Ligthart, L., Derom, C. A., Martin, N. G., Neale, M. C., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2010). Genetic covariance structure of the four main features of borderline personality disorder. J Pers Disord, 24(4), 427-444. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2010.24.4.427
  • De Moor, M. H., Distel, M. A., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2009). Assessment of borderline personality features in population samples: is the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features scale measurement invariant across sex and age? Psychol Assess, 21(1), 125-130. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014502
  • Distel, M. A., Rebollo-Mesa, I., Willemsen, G., Derom, C. A., Trull, T. J., Martin, N. G., & Boomsma, D. I. (2009). Familial resemblance of borderline personality disorder features: genetic or cultural transmission? PLoS One, 4(4), e5334. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0005334
  • Distel, M. A., Trull, T. J., Willemsen, G., Vink, J. M., Derom, C. A., Lynskey, M., Martin, N. G., & Boomsma, D. I. (2009). The five-factor model of personality and borderline personality disorder: a genetic analysis of comorbidity. Biol Psychiatry, 66(12), 1131-1138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.07.017
  • Distel, M. A., Hottenga, J. J., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2008). Chromosome 9: linkage for borderline personality disorder features. Psychiatr Genet, 18(6), 302-307. https://doi.org/10.1097/YPG.0b013e3283118468
  • Distel, M. A., Trull, T. J., Derom, C. A., Thiery, E. W., Grimmer, M. A., Martin, N. G., Willemsen, G., & Boomsma, D. I. (2008). Heritability of borderline personality disorder features is similar across three countries. Psychol Med, 38(9), 1219-1229. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291707002024
  • Distel, M. A., Ligthart, L., Willemsen, G., Nyholt, D. R., Trull, T. J., & Boomsma, D. I. (2007). Personality, health and lifestyle in a questionnaire family study: a comparison between highly cooperative and less cooperative families. Twin Res Hum Genet, 10(2), 348-353. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.10.2.348