Meta-Analysis Points to Neurodevelopmental Disorder Heritability, Genetic Overlap

In Nature Human Behaviour, researchers from the UK and the US present findings from a meta-analysis looking at genetic and environmental contributors to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) such as autism spectrum disorder or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, along with potential overlap between them. Using data from nearly 300 studies encompassing millions of individuals, the team explored everything from the heritability of NDDs to the genetic correlations between them and potential overlap with conditions such as antisocial personality disorder, pyromania, or kleptomania that are together known as "disruptive, impulse control and conduct disorders," or DICCs. Among other results, for example, the study "provides meta-analytic evidence for the substantial heritability of all NDDs," the authors report, noting that their analyses indicate that "NDDs are just as strongly genetically correlated with other NDDs as most of them are with DICCs."