Abstract
Vitamin D, used here to refer to both 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the main circulating form of the vitamin, and 1,25-hydroxyvitamin D, the biologically active form, has been shown to influence brain development and function. Consistent with these findings, low levels of vitamin D have been implicated in various mental disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, and autism. Recently, a shared variance across multiple categories of mental health disorders has been identified and shown to be genetically influenced. This shared variance, thought to represent a general risk for psychopathology, has been termed the p factor. Individuals with high p factor scores are characterized by high neuroticism and low agreeableness and conscientiousness. Here, we investigated the links between vitamin D polygenic scores — derived from the latest genome-wide association study of circulating vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) levels — the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness-to-experience, and extraversion), and the p factor, in a sample of 522 (278 women, mean age 20 ± 1 years) non-Hispanic Caucasians. Vitamin D polygenic scores were significantly and negatively associated with neuroticism and the p factor, even after correcting for multiple comparisons, and controlling for sex, age, ancestry, socioeconomic status, and body mass index. Based on previous research implicating neuroticism as a risk factor for psychopathology, mediation was tested. Results showed a significant indirect effect from the vitamin D polygenic score to the p factor via neuroticism. Our findings support a genetic link between vitamin D levels, neuroticism, and the p factor, but due to the cross-sectional nature of our data, future studies are needed to clarify the causal associations between these phenotypes.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 109912 |
| Journal | Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry |
| Volume | 100 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 8 Jun 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We would like to thank the participants of the Duke Neurogenetics Study and the members of the Laboratory of NeuroGenetics, especially Annchen R. Knodt, Spenser R. Radtke, and Bartholomew D. Brigidi for their assistance with data collection and analysis. We would also like to thank the head of the laboratory, Prof. Ahmad Hariri, without whom this study would not have been possible. The DNS was supported by Duke University as well as US-National Institutes of Health grants R01DA033369 and R01DA031579 . RA received support from US-National Institutes of Health grant R01AG049789 and from a fellowship from the Jerusalem Brain Community and declares no competing financial or other interests.
Funding Information:
We would like to thank the participants of the Duke Neurogenetics Study and the members of the Laboratory of NeuroGenetics, especially Annchen R. Knodt, Spenser R. Radtke, and Bartholomew D. Brigidi for their assistance with data collection and analysis. We would also like to thank the head of the laboratory, Prof. Ahmad Hariri, without whom this study would not have been possible. The DNS was supported by Duke University as well as US-National Institutes of Health grants R01DA033369 and R01DA031579. RA received support from US-National Institutes of Health grant R01AG049789 and from a fellowship from the Jerusalem Brain Community and declares no competing financial or other interests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
- Cross-disorder
- General psychopathology factor
- Neuroticism
- Personality
- The p factor
- Vitamin D
