TRAIT-SPECIFIC PATTERNS OF COMMON GENETIC FACTORS INFLUENCE SOCIAL-COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES AND ADHD SYMPTOMS DURING CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms and social-communication difficulties are heritable population-based traits, which are aetiologically interlinked but differ in their genetic continuity with psychiatric illness. The dynamic nature of common genetic factors underlying these behaviours is, however, little understood and genetic overlap with disorder may depend on the age of the assessed phenotype. We therefore investigated for each trait the developmental profile of common genetic influences during a 10-year period spanning childhood and adolescence.