Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses

© 2016 Nature America, Inc. Very few genetic variants have been associatedwith depression and neuroticism, likely because of limitations on sample size in previous studies. Subjective well-being, a phenotype that is genetically correlatedwith both of these traits, has not yet been studied with genome-wide data. We conducted genome-wide association studiesof three phenotypes: subjective well-being (n = 298,420), depressive symptoms (n = 161,460), and neuroticism(n = 170,911). We identify 3 variants associatedwith subjective well-being, 2 variants associatedwith depressive symptoms, and 11 variants associatedwith neuroticism, including 2 inversion polymorphisms. The two loci associatedwith depressive symptoms replicate in an independent depression sample. Joint analyses that exploit the high genetic correlationsbetween the phenotypes (P = 0.8) strengthen the overall credibility of the findings and allow us to identify additional variants. Across our phenotypes, loci regulating expression in central nervous system and adrenal or pancreas tissues are strongly enriched for association.