Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30718901›Full record

SynthesisNature neuroscience2019

Genome-wide meta-analysis of depression identifies 102 independent variants and highlights the importance of the prefrontal brain regions.

David M Howard, Mark J Adams, Toni-Kim Clarke, Jonathan D Hafferty, Jude Gibson, Masoud Shirali, Jonathan R I Coleman, Saskia P Hagenaars, Joey Ward, Eleanor M Wigmore and 30 more

Open access · greenAbstract readMeta-Analysis
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Nature neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1,429 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1,429citing papers in PubMed, 10 pooled it
206.5field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1,429 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 2,722 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  3. Assessing the causal effects of environmental tobacco smoke exposure: a meta-analytic Mendelian randomization study.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026
    Pooled it
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  11. Article
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  13. Allele-specific expression in the brain links genetic risk and cortical thinning in psychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
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  18. Genetic architectures of brain-related traits are shaped by strong selective constraints.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  19. Genetic interconnections between personality-related phenotypes and psychiatric disorders.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  20. Article

1,369 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

40 authors at 12 institutions in 5 countries.

David M HowardDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK. D.Howard@ed.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6005-1972
Mark J AdamsDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3599-6018
Toni-Kim ClarkeDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
Jonathan D HaffertyDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
Jude GibsonDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3745-8360
Masoud ShiraliDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5401-0541
Jonathan R I ColemanSocial Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6759-0944
Saskia P HagenaarsSocial Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Joey WardInstitute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
Eleanor M WigmoreDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
Clara AllozaDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2092-8055
Xueyi ShenDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0538-4774
Miruna C BarbuDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
Eileen Y XuDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.
Heather C WhalleyDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4505-8869
Riccardo E MarioniCentre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
David J PorteousCentre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1249-6106
Gail DaviesCentre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Ian J DearyCentre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Gibran HemaniMedical Research Council (MRC) Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Population Health, Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Klaus BergerInstitute of Epidemiology & Social Medicine, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Henning TeismannInstitute of Epidemiology & Social Medicine, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5807-5572
Rajesh RawalInstitute of Epidemiology & Social Medicine, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Volker AroltDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Bernhard T BauneDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Udo DannlowskiDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Katharina DomschkeDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Chao Tian23andMe, Inc, Mountain View, CA, USA.
David A Hinds23andMe, Inc, Mountain View, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4911-803X
23andMe Research Team
Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium
Maciej TrzaskowskiQueensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Enda M ByrneQueensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9491-7797
Stephan RipkeDepartment of Psychiatry, Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
Daniel J SmithInstitute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2267-1951
Patrick F SullivanDepartment of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Naomi R WrayQueensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7421-3357
Gerome BreenSocial Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2053-1792
Cathryn M LewisSocial Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8249-8476
Andrew M McIntoshDivision of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0198-4588
Royal Edinburgh Hospital · GBUniversity of Münster · DEKing's College London · GBUniversity of Edinburgh · GBThe University of Queensland · AU23andMe (United States) · USUniversity of Glasgow · GBBroad Institute · USThe University of Melbourne · AUUniversity of Bristol · GBUniversity of Freiburg · DEUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · US

Funding

TOXICOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTAL HALOCARBONSP01ES000040 · NIEHS · OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY · PI KERKVLIET, NANCY I · 1985 to 2007
$8.0M
7/7 Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Finding actionable variationU01MH109532 · NIMH · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI AGRAWAL, ARPANA, EDENBERG, HOWARD J · 2016 to 2020
$3.1M
3/7 Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Finding actionable variationU01MH109536 · NIMH · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · PI CHARNEY, ALEXANDER W, HUCKINS, LAURA MARIANNE · 2016 to 2020
$2.7M
1/7 Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Finding actionable variationU01MH109528 · NIMH · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI SULLIVAN, PATRICK F · 2016 to 2020
$2.5M
Medical Research Council G0700704Medical Research Council MC_PC_17209Medical Research Council MC_PC_17228Medical Research Council MC_QA137853Medical Research Council MR/J000914/1Medical Research Council MR/K026992/1Medical Research Council MR/S015132/1MRF_ C0396NIEHS NIH HHS P01 ES000040NIMH NIH HHS U01 MH109528NIMH NIH HHS U01 MH109532NIMH NIH HHS U01 MH109536Wellcome Trust 104036Wellcome Trust 208806
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Major depression is a debilitating psychiatric illness that is typically associated with low mood and anhedonia. Depression has a heritable component that has remained difficult to elucidate with current sample sizes due to the polygenic nature of the disorder. To maximize sample size, we meta-analyzed data on 807,553 individuals (246,363 cases and 561,190 controls) from the three largest genome-wide association studies of depression. We identified 102 independent variants, 269 genes, and 15 genesets associated with depression, including both genes and gene pathways associated with synaptic structure and neurotransmission. An enrichment analysis provided further evidence of the importance of prefrontal brain regions. In an independent replication sample of 1,306,354 individuals (414,055 cases and 892,299 controls), 87 of the 102 associated variants were significant after multiple testing correction. These findings advance our understanding of the complex genetic architecture of depression and provide several future avenues for understanding etiology and developing new treatment approaches.

Indexed as

Cohort StudiesDepressionFemaleGenetic Predisposition to DiseaseGenetic VariationGenome-Wide Association StudyHumansMajor Depressive DisorderMaleMultifactorial InheritancePolymorphism, Single NucleotidePrefrontal Cortex

Identifiers

PMID30718901
PMCPMC6522363
OpenAlexW2911487850

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.