Pamela Sklar and colleagues report a genome-wide association study of bipolar disorder and identify variants in the genes encoding ankyrin-3 and the alpha-1C subunit of the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel as increasing risk. To identify susceptibility loci for bipolar disorder, we tested 1.8 million variants in 4,387 cases and 6,209 controls and identified a region of strong association (rs10994336, P = 9.1 × 10−9) in ANK3 (ankyrin G). We also found further support for the previously reported CACNA1C (alpha 1C subunit of the L-type voltage-gated calcium channel; combined P = 7.0 × 10−8, rs1006737). Our results suggest that ion channelopathies may be involved in the pathogenesis of bipolar disorder.

Collaborative genome-wide association analysis supports a role for ANK3 and CACNA1C in bipolar disorder