The genetic overlap between schizophrenia and height

Abstract

Epidemiological studies suggest that height and schizophrenia risk are inversely correlated. These findings might arise because i) height and schizophrenia share genetic variants and ii) the effects of these shared variants are in opposite direction for the two traits. We use genome wide association data to empirically evaluate these hypotheses. We find that variants which impact on height and risk for schizophrenia are distributed across several genomic regions and the directions of effect vary, some consistent and others inconsistent with the direction expected from the phenotypic data. Moreover, signals that were in and not in accord with the phenotypic data aggregated in distinct biological pathways.

Keywords: Network analysis; Shrinkage; Suggestive signals.