Suicidal ideation during adolescence: The roles of aggregate genetic liability for suicide attempts and negative life events in the past year

Abstract

Background: Suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) constitute a central public health concern in adolescence. Previous studies emphasized the difficulty to cope with negative life events during adolescence as a risk factor for STB. Familial and genetic liability has also been documented to explain STB risk. Nevertheless, less is known about aggregate genetic liability and its possible interaction with negative life events. Moreover, information is needed to understand how these factors differently affect STB in boys and girls. Methods: We evaluated suicidal ideation at 17 years old and examined the role of aggregate genetic liability, negative life events, and their interaction in a sample of 2,571 adolescents. Aggregate genetic liability was measured using a polygenic score (PGS) for suicide attempts. Negative life events were assessed in the past year and included parental divorce and hospitalizations, death of friends and relatives, bullying, failure-related events, and involvement with drugs. We conducted univariable and multivariable general linear models stratified by sex and evaluated the interactions between PGS and negative life events in subsequent models. Results: Analyses showed that suicidal ideation in boys is associated with failure to achieve something important (estimate = 0.198), bullying (estimate = 0.285), drug use (estimate = 0.325), and parental death (estimate = 0.923). In girls, both aggregate genetic liability (estimate = 0.041) and negative life events (failure at school [estimate = 0.120], failure to achieve something important [estimate = 0.279], drug use [estimate = 0.395], and bullying [estimate = 0.472]) were associated with suicidal ideation. Interaction analyses suggested that PGS interacted with drug use and failures at school, though this would need additional support. Conclusions: These findings represent significant contributions to the fundamental understanding of STB in adolescence, suggesting to monitor the impact of negative life events during adolescence to better prevent suicide risk. Genetic liability is also of importance in girls and might influence the way they respond to environmental threats.

Commentary: Will genomics revolutionise research on gene–environment interplay?

“…This means that the most vulnerable families will need substantial 'scaffolding' to support them and may require interventions at multiple developmental points. The papers in this issue analysed data from large longitudinal cohort studies such as the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (Choi et al, 2022), ALSPAC (Lannoy et al, 2022), the E-risk study (Agnew-Blais et al, 2022) (Kretschmer et al, 2022), and the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) (Cheesman et al, 2022;Eilertsen et al, 2022). Most cohort studies have arrangements in place for making data available to researchers.…”

“…Papers in this special issue investigate polygenic scores for schizophrenia and major depression (Machlitt‐Northen et al., 2022 ), suicide attempts (Lannoy et al., 2022 ), ADHD (Agnew‐Blais et al., 2022 ; Cheesman et al., 2022 ) and externalising problems (Kretschmer et al., 2022 ). These polygenic scores are used to investigate correlations and interactions with environmental measures as they affect behavioural traits.…”

“…The papers in this issue analysed data from large longitudinal cohort studies such as the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (Choi et al., 2022 ), ALSPAC (Lannoy et al., 2022 ), the E‐risk study (Agnew‐Blais et al., 2022 ), Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) (Machlitt‐Northen et al., 2022 ), the Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) (Kretschmer et al., 2022 ), and the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) (Cheesman et al., 2022 ; Eilertsen et al., 2022 ). Most cohort studies have arrangements in place for making data available to researchers.…”

Editorial: Does the polygenic revolution herald a watershed in the study of GE interplay in developmental psychopathology? Some considerations for the Special Issue reader

“…(2022) that focus on how children's genetic risk can, in part, evoke ‘environmental’ experiences. Two papers examine G × E, with Lannoy, Mars, Heron, and Edwards (2022) showing that negative life events can potentiate genetic risk for suicide, whereas Cheesman et al. (2022) highlight that ADHD and school achievement can be moderated by school environments themselves.…”

“…The collection of papers use PGS in quite varied ways. The issue kicks off with a primer by Allegrini, Baldwin, Barkhuizen, and Pingault (2022) Lannoy, Mars, Heron, and Edwards (2022) showing that negative life events can potentiate genetic risk for suicide, whereas Cheesman et al (2022) highlight that ADHD and school achievement can be moderated by school environments themselves. Eilertsen et al (2022), using mother-father-child trios, show that ADHD and conduct problems could be associated with both direct genetic effects of parents, as well as indirect effects of the parents through the environment.…”