Developmental manifestations of polygenic risk for bipolar disorder from infancy to middle childhood

Knowledge on how genetic risk for bipolar disorder manifests in developmental, emotional or behavioral traits during childhood is lacking. This issue is important to address to inform early detection and intervention efforts. We investigated whether polygenic risk for bipolar disorder is associated with developmental outcomes during early to middle childhood in the general population, and if associations differ between boys and girls. Our sample consisted of 28 001 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort study, a prospective pregnancy cohort with available genotype and developmental data. Mothers reported on a range of developmental outcomes in their children at 6 and 18 months, 3, 5 and 8 years. Polygenic risk scores reflecting common variant liability to bipolar disorder were calculated. Linear regression models were used in a multi-group framework to investigate associations between polygenic risk score and developmental outcomes, using sex as a grouping variable. We found robust evidence for an association between polygenic risk scores for bipolar disorder and conduct difficulties (β = 0.041, CI = 0.020–0.062) and oppositional defiant difficulties (β = 0.032, CI = 0.014–0.051) at 8 years. Associations with most other outcomes were estimated within the region of practical equivalence to zero (equivalence range D = −0.1 to 0.1), with the exceptions of negative association for activity levels (β = −0.028, CI = −0.047– −0.010) at age 5 and benevolence (β = −0.025, CI = –0.043 to –0.008) at age 8, and positive association for motor difficulties (β = 0.025, CI = 0.008–0.043) at age 3, inattention (β = 0.021, CI = 0.003–0.041) and hyperactivity (β = 0.025, CI = 0.006–0.044) at age 8. Our results suggest that genetic risk for bipolar disorder manifests as disruptive behaviors like oppositional defiant and conduct difficulties in childhood in the general population.