Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2020
Many individuals ascertained for developmental dyslexia (DD) are also diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and approximately 20% of individuals with ADHD will have evidence for DD. The basis for this overlap is not completely understood but twin studies have provide support for common genetic influences, particularly for inattention symptoms. Genetic linkage studies have found significant evidence for linkage of DD to chromosomes 1p34-p36, 15q, 6p21.3-22, 2p15-16, 6q11.2-q12 and 18p11.2. Evidence for linkage/association to ADHD has also been found to overlap for some of these regions. The objective of this study is to identify genes contributing to both.
We examined evidence for the involvement of specific genes in these chromosomal regions using two samples of families, one ascertained through a proband with DD (n= 273 families) and the other through a proband with ADHD (n= 390 families).
Our studies of the 6p region indicate that the sample of DD families is associated to markers in this region and to ADHD but not to the same markers within the linked region. For the 15q region, we have found significant evidence for association for both the ADHD and reading phenotypes in both samples (Wigg et al., 2004; Wigg et al., 2005). We have also found evidence for the gene for the dopamine receptor D1 to be associated to the inattention symptoms in both samples
While the studies of the overlap in ADHD and DD are preliminary, they are promising in that they will ultimately help to disentangle the causal relationship.
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