Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40490728›Full record

ArticleJournal of neurodevelopmental disorders2025

Enhancing the discriminatory power of polygenic scores for ADHD and autism in clinical and non-clinical samples.

James J Li, Quanfa He, Stephen Dorn, Zihang Wang, Qiongshi Lu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

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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

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

James J LiDepartment of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W. Johnson Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. james.li@wisc.edu.
Quanfa HeDepartment of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W. Johnson Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
Stephen DornDepartment of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Zihang WangDepartment of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Qiongshi LuCenter for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.

Funding

Waisman Center Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research CenterP50HD105353 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · PI Qiang Chang · 2021 to 2026
$8.5M
The impact of early life adversity on brain network development in youthR01MH128371 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · PI Rasmus Matthias Birn · 2022 to 2026
$1.9M
Integrating developmental and genomic approaches to identify early trajectories of eating and internalizing disorder symptomsR01MH134039 · NIMH · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · PI Nadia Micali, Jin Peng Szatkiewicz · 2024 to 2026
$1.6M
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development P50HD105353NICHD NIH HHS P50 HD105353NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH128371NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH134039NIMH NIH HHS R01MH134039
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPolygenic scores (PGS) are widely used in psychiatric genetic associations studies due to their predictive power for focal outcomes. However, they lack discriminatory power, in part due to the high degree of genetic overlap between psychiatric disorders. The lack of prediction specificity limits the clinical utility of psychiatric PGS, particularly for diagnostic applications. The goal of the study was to enhance the discriminatory power of psychiatric PGS for two highly comorbid and genetically correlated neurodevelopmental disorders in ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

methodsGenomic structural equation modeling (GenomicSEM) was used to generate novel PGS for ADHD and ASD by accounting for the genetic overlap between these disorders (and eight others) to achieve greater discriminatory power in non-focal outcome predictions. PGS associations were tested in two large independent samples - the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (N = 4,789) and the Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK) ASD and sibling controls (N = 5,045) cohort.

resultsPGS from GenomicSEM achieved superior discriminatory power in terms of showing significantly attenuated associations with non-focal outcomes relative to traditionally computed PGS for these disorders. Additionally, genetic correlations between GenomicSEM PGS for ASD and ADHD were significantly attenuated in cross-trait associations with other psychiatric disorders and outcomes.

conclusionsPsychiatric PGS associations are likely inflated by the high degree of genetic overlap between the psychiatric disorders. Methods such as GenomicSEM can be used to refine PGS signals to be more disorder-specific, thereby enhancing their discriminatory power for future diagnostic applications.

Indexed as

Attention Deficit Disorder with HyperactivityAutism Spectrum DisorderMultifactorial InheritanceAdolescentAutistic DisorderChildCohort StudiesFemaleHumansMaleADHDASDGenomicSEMNeurodevelopmentPolygenic scores

Identifiers

PMID40490728
PMCPMC12150501

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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.