Exploration of Genetic Liability to Insomnia and Substance Use Disorders in Patients With Bipolar Disorder

Insomnia and substance use disorders (SUD) are common comorbidities of bipolar disorder (BD). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have uncovered shared genetic contributions to insomnia and BD as well as SUDs and BD. Electronic health record (EHR) derived phenotypes (phecodes) and questionnaire data were used to examine the relationship between insomnia genetic liability and SUDs in BD.

40,839 participants from the Mayo Clinic Bipolar Disorder Biobank (BD Biobank; n = 774) and Mayo Clinic Biobank (n = 485 BD cases, n = 39,580 controls) were included in the analyses of diagnosis (phecode) outcomes (insomnia, SUD, alcohol use disorder [AUD] and tobacco use disorder [TUD]). Analyses of specific SUD outcomes obtained through the BD Biobank questionnaire included 1789 cases and considered BD subtype. Logistic regression was used to test for associations between insomnia polygenic risk scores (PRS) and insomnia and SUD outcomes in BD cases and controls.

Insomnia PRS was associated with having an insomnia diagnosis (phecode) in the EHR in controls (OR = 1.19, p = 9.64e-33) but not in BD cases (OR = 1, p = 0.95). Associations between insomnia PRS and SUD diagnoses were significant in BD cases and controls, with the association being stronger in BD cases (interaction p = 0.024). In the BD Biobank data, the insomnia PRS was associated with increased odds of AUD (OR = 1.19, p = 4.26e-04), TUD (OR = 1.21, p = 1.25e-05) and cannabis use disorder (OR = 1.16, p = 4.19e-03).

The effect of genetic predisposition to insomnia on SUD risk may be stronger in BD cases than in controls, which could have clinical care implications for individuals with BD and comorbid SUD.