pubmedvcu

• Advancing models of PTSD-AUD comorbidity: protocol for a multimethod framework using genetics and ecological momentary assessment March 16, 2026
  Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD), which are moderately heritable, frequently co-occur and contribute to significant public health burdens, particularly among economically disadvantaged urban communities. There are noted sex differences in PTSD and AUD outcomes, with evidence suggesting women have heightened susceptibility to stress-related alcohol use. Preliminary PTSD-AUD ecological momentary assessment […]
  Elizabeth A Stinson
• Familial genetic risk for posttraumatic stress disorder: Associations with clinical features March 13, 2026
  In the present study, the novel family genetic risk score (FGRS) method, a reliable quantification of latent genetic risk, was applied to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to examine associations between genetic liability and clinical features of PTSD among 3,097,180 individuals in the Swedish national registries. FGRS was calculated based on lifetime PTSD status for first- […]
  Ananda B Amstadter
• Genetic influences on suicide attempt in adolescence: Evaluating mediation by impulsivity and painful and provocative events March 12, 2026
  CONCLUSIONS: Impulsivity and PPEs each contribute to risk for SA. However, there is little support for the hypothesis that genetic influences on SA are mediated by impulsivity and PPE exposure in early adolescence.
  Mallory Stephenson
• Participant ascertainment is differentially related to phenotypic characteristics and alcohol-related genetic liability in a sample with severe alcohol use disorder March 9, 2026
  CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with severe AUD exhibit heterogeneity across many risk domains, particularly for alcohol-related measures. This heterogeneity can be captured through the ascertainment of study participants via diverse modalities, improving representativeness and potentially facilitating gene identification efforts.
  Alexis C Edwards
• Genomic Study of Resilience to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Million Veteran Program February 28, 2026
  CONCLUSIONS: These findings extend the literature regarding DBPR as a resilience measure and help inform our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms.
  Cassie Overstreet
• Age effect explorer: a Shiny application to browse and visualize tissue-specific age-related gene expression changes February 12, 2026
  MOTIVATION: Understanding age-related transcriptional changes in human tissues is crucial for elucidating molecular mechanisms of aging and disease. Current genomic analysis tools often require programming expertise, limiting accessibility for comprehensive aging studies. Here, we present Age Effect Explorer, an interactive R Shiny application for systematically analyzing age- and sex-related gene expression pattern changes across 54 […]
  Menghui Chen
• Suicide risks associated with cardiovascular disease in persons with alcohol use disorder February 8, 2026
  CONCLUSIONS: In this large national cohort with AUD, CVD was associated with a ∼40 % higher risk of suicide death. Clinical care for persons with AUD should integrate mental health and prevention and treatment of CVD comorbidities to support their long-term health and survival.
  Casey Crump
• The impact of alcohol use disorder and PTSD comorbidity on risk of suicide attempt February 6, 2026
  CONCLUSIONS: PTSD and AUD are independently associated with SA, but risk is substantially exacerbated among comorbid individuals. While the total effect of these conditions on SA risk is overall comparable across sexes, females whose PTSD precedes AUD are particularly burdened by comorbidity.
  Alexis C Edwards
• Genome-wide association study of major anxiety disorders in 122,341 European-ancestry cases identifies 58 loci and highlights GABAergic signaling February 3, 2026
  The major anxiety disorders (ANX; including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and phobias) are highly prevalent, often onset early and cause substantial global disability. Although distinct in their clinical presentations, they probably represent differential expressions of a dysregulated threat-response system. Here, we present a genome-wide association meta-analysis comprising 122,341 European ancestry ANX cases and 729,881 […]
  Nora I Strom
• Characterizing the co-occurrence of alcohol experimentation and suicidal thoughts and behaviors in early adolescence January 29, 2026
  This study aims to investigate the roles of decision-making processes and genetics in the co-occurrence of alcohol use and suicidal thoughts/behaviors (STB) in adolescence. We used data from the ABCD^(®) study (abcdstudy.org) and included behavioral (computerized tasks, self-report questionnaires) and genetic (polygenic scores [PGS]) measures related to cognitive (executive functions) and affective (delay-discounting, risk-taking, impulsivity) […]
  Séverine Lannoy
• Social Determinants of Health and Pediatric Long COVID in the US January 6, 2026
  CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this study, economic instability that included food insecurity and poor social and community context were associated with greater odds of pediatric long COVID. Those with food security, despite experiencing other economic challenges, did not have greater odds of long COVID. Further study is needed to determine if addressing SDOH factors can […]
  Kyung E Rhee
• Stability of Music Engagement Across Childhood, Adolescence, and Established Adulthood: A Longitudinal Twin and Adoption Study January 6, 2026
  Music engagement traits are linked to important developmental language, cognitive, and mental health outcomes, but longitudinal studies have not examined the developmental stability of music engagement across the first few decades of life, especially using genetically informative designs. The current study examined music engagement-defined as being interested and skilled at musical instruments and taking music […]
  Daniel E Gustavson
• Time-Since-Deposition Signatures for Canine Blood Based on Cellular Autofluorescence December 31, 2025
  Animal cruelty investigations can be hampered by not knowing when a biological sample was deposited at a crime scene, i.e., the sample's time-since-deposition (TSD). The goal of this study was to characterize a new signature system for estimating the TSD of canine blood samples based on changes in the autofluorescence spectra of cell populations that […]
  Alysia Townsley
• The relationship between genotype- and phenotype-based estimates of genetic liability to psychiatric disorders, in practice and in theory December 23, 2025
  Genetics as a science has roots in studying phenotypes of relatives, but molecular approaches facilitate direct measurements of genomic variation between individuals. Agricultural and human biomedical research are both emphasizing genotype-based instruments, such as polygenic scores, but unlike in agriculture, there is an emerging consensus that family variables act nearly independently of genotypes in models […]
  M Dybdahl Krebs
• Association of cumulative deficit frailty with brain age and Alzheimer's disease-related brain structure starting in late-middle age December 22, 2025
  CONCLUSIONS: CDF was associated with age-related brain structure via strong time-invariant common variance as well as weaker across-time factors. By contrast, the association between CDF and AD-related brain structure was via moderate common variance and was not temporally dynamic. Together, this suggests that CDF is differentially associated with age-related and AD-related brain changes and may […]
  Jack F V Hunt
• MIRAGE: A Bayesian statistical method for gene-level rare-variant analysis incorporating functional annotations December 20, 2025
  Rare-variant analysis is commonly used in whole-exome or genome sequencing studies. Compared to common variants, rare variants tend to have larger effect sizes and often directly point out causal genes. These potential benefits make association analysis with rare variants a priority for human genetics researchers. To improve the power of such studies, numerous methods have […]
  Shengtong Han
• Unique and shared internalizing and externalizing genetic factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors: Findings from the adolescent brain cognitive development study December 20, 2025
  CONCLUSION: Internalizing and externalizing genetic liabilities influence STBs through two pathways: one that is mediated by phenotypic internalizing and externalizing and another that is direct from genetic liability to STBs. Further research into targeted prevention strategies for child and adolescent STBs focused on both phenotypic and genetic measures of internalizing and externalizing is recommended.
  Nathaniel S Thomas
• Joint analysis of <em>de novo</em> mutations from autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, congenital heart disease, and other developmental disorders improves detection power and implicates shared molecular pathways and CNS processes December 19, 2025
  Rare exonic variant studies have previously implicated overlapping risk genes and pathways for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders (UDDs), intellectual disability (ID), congenital heart disease (CHD), and schizophrenia (SCZ). Here, we use a two-trait Bayesian integrative analysis approach on 43 287 ASD, UDD/ID, CHD, and SCZ case trios to increase statistical power […]
  Marc Kealhofer
• The relationship in women between genetic liability and the risk of onset of alcohol use disorder while pregnant or rearing an infant, toddler, or preschool child December 14, 2025
  While pregnancy clearly reduces the risk for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) onset, we know less about the impact on AUD risk of having young children and how these effects vary across maternal age and level of maternal AUD genetic risk. Therefore, in 1.2 million parous Swedish women born 1960-1995, we examined those with a first […]
  Kenneth S Kendler
• Th9-arterial endothelial cell crosstalk promotes psoriatic atherosclerosis December 13, 2025
  CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the Th9^(high) state may represent a novel psoriatic ASCVD endotype that could be targeted using precision approaches to prevent ASCVD in at-risk individuals.
  Ishita Baral