[Source:  Science Daily]

Researchers from Aarhus University have come closer to answering this question in a large study, which has just been published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Together with national and international partners, the researchers have studied more than six million genetic variants in 38,691 people with ADHD and 186,843 people without ADHD. By this means it has been possible to identify 27 genetic risk variants for the common neurodevelopmental disorder.

Risk genes are expressed in the brain and neurons

The study is ground-breaking, inter alia because it finds more than twice as many risk variants as previous studies have identified.

The term “genetic variants” means specific variations in the DNA code — in this case, variants which are observed more frequently in people with ADHD than in people without the diagnosis. Variants in DNA affect, for example, the degree to which a gene is expressed and subsequently the amount of protein that is encoded by the gene.

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