Genetics of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Across The Lifespan

Abstract

Overall Abstract Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood-onset neuropsychiatric condition, with impairing symptoms persisting into adulthood in the majority of cases. ADHD-diagnosed children, adolescents and adults share similar clinical features, co-morbidities and failures in major life domains. These associated problems increase the burden of disease and, consequently, global impairment, resistance to treatment and costs of illness. As most genetic studies on ADHD so far have been focusing on its childhood form only, there is limited knowledge about the genetics of ADHD at different ages, in clinical subgroups and across comorbid conditions. This symposium will present recent advances in our understanding of the genetics of ADHD and its major comorbid conditions across the lifespan. Speakers will address ADHD traits from a dimensional perspective using quantitative measures from national twin registry data, as well as unpublished genome wide molecular genetic data collected from large international multi-center clinical samples at different age groups. In this integrated symposium hosted by the International Multi-center persistent ADHD Collaboration (IMpACT), we will first present an updated review on ADHD heritability across the lifespan (presentation 1). We will then present a new international genome-wide association study of the adult form of ADHD (presentation 2), address genetic aspects of ADHD co-morbidity with adult obesity (presentation 3), and finally explore genetic correlations between ADHD dimensions in childhood and neuropsychiatric phenotypes in adulthood (presentation 4). As we gather more knowledge about ADHD, it is becoming clear that a full understanding of the disorder requires research from a lifetime perspective, integrating data from adults and children, using clinical samples as well as population registry data. Combination of different research traditions into a joint symposium will aid the exchange of information and future development of this important field.