An international study published in the journal Cell, has described 109 genetic variants associated with eight psychiatric disorders: anorexia nervosa, autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette Syndrome, in a total of about 230,000 patients worldwide.

Among the participants in the new study –the most ambitious and detailed study published so far on the genetics of psychiatric disorders- are the researchers Bru Cormand and Raquel Rabionet, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), the Research Institute Sant Joan de Déu (IRSJD), the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERER), and Marta Ribasés, Josep Antoni Ramos-Quiroga and other members of the research group in Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addictions of the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and the Mental Health Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERSAM).

The international study is promoted by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium –the most ambitious international platform on genetics of psychiatric conditions- and is led by the expert Jordan W Smoller, from Harvard University (United States).  Apart from listing potential genetic predisposition (or resilience) factors to pathologies, this study determines the specific genes that the different pathologies share and completes the genetic map of psychiatric disorders.