Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34710714›Full record

ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2021

Ancestry may confound genetic machine learning: Candidate-gene prediction of opioid use disorder as an example.

Alexander S Hatoum, Frank R Wendt, Marco Galimberti, Renato Polimanti, Benjamin Neale, Henry R Kranzler, Joel Gelernter, Howard J Edenberg, Arpana Agrawal

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
2.1field-weighted citation impact, top 12% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
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  8. Article
  9. Principles and Policy Recommendations for Comprehensive Genetic Data Governance.Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society · 2025
    Article
  10. A Comprehensive 4-layeredCurrent pharmaceutical biotechnology · 2025
    Article
  11. Generalized genetic liability to substance use disorders.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2024
    Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.

Alexander S HatoumWashington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, USA. Electronic address: ashatoum@wustl.edu.
Frank R WendtDepartment of Psychiatry, Division of Human Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Marco GalimbertiDepartment of Psychiatry, Division of Human Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Renato PolimantiDepartment of Psychiatry, Division of Human Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA.
Benjamin NealeAnalytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Henry R KranzlerCenter for Studies of Addiction, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA; VISN 4 MIRECC, Crescenz VAMC, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Joel GelernterDepartment of Psychiatry, Division of Human Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT, USA; Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Howard J EdenbergDepartment of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
Arpana AgrawalWashington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, USA.
Yale University · USWashington University in St. Louis · USBroad Institute · USIndiana University School of MedicineMental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers · US

Funding

Sex-specific analysis of opioid dependence GWAS and beyondR01DA012690 · NIDA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI GELERNTER, JOEL · 2000 to 2017
$14.0M
GENETICS OF COCAINE DEPENDENCER01DA012849 · NIDA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI GELERNTER, JOEL · 1999 to 2010
$11.5M
BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH TRAINING IN DRUG ABUSET32DA007261 · NIDA · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI ARPANA AGRAWAL, Jose A Moron-Concepcion · 1991 to 2026
$8.8M
Linkage Disequilibrium Studies of Alcohol DependenceR01AA011330 · NIAAA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI GELERNTER, JOEL · 1997 to 2013
$6.4M
Genomewide Association Study of Cocaine Dependence in two PopulationsRC2DA028909 · NIDA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI GELERNTER, JOEL · 2009 to 2010
$4.2M
Genetics of Cocaine DependenceR01DA018432 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCH OF MED/DNT · PI KRANZLER, HENRY RICHARD · 2006 to 2010
$3.5M
7/7 Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Finding actionable variationU01MH109532 · NIMH · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI AGRAWAL, ARPANA, EDENBERG, HOWARD J · 2016 to 2020
$3.1M
Genetics of Alcohol Dependence in African-AmericansR01AA017535 · NIAAA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI GELERNTER, JOEL · 2009 to 2013
$3.0M
DELINEATING THE ROLE OF GENETIC INFLUENCES ON CANNABIS INVOLVEMENTK02DA032573 · NIDA · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · PI AGRAWAL, ARPANA · 2012 to 2021
$1.1M
Decoding the Sex-Specific Biological Mechanisms of Psychiatric Disorders Using Genome-Wide AnalysesF32MH122058 · NIMH · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI WENDT, FRANK · 2020 to 2021
$118k
NIAAA NIH HHS R01 AA011330NIAAA NIH HHS R01 AA017535NIDA NIH HHS K02 DA032573NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA012690NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA012849NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA018432NIDA NIH HHS RC2 DA028909NIDA NIH HHS T32 DA007261NIMH NIH HHS F32 MH122058NIMH NIH HHS U01 MH109532
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMachine learning (ML) models are beginning to proliferate in psychiatry, however machine learning models in psychiatric genetics have not always accounted for ancestry. Using an empirical example of a proposed genetic test for OUD, and exploring a similar test for tobacco dependence and a simulated binary phenotype, we show that genetic prediction using ML is vulnerable to ancestral confounding.

methodsWe utilize five ML algorithms trained with 16 brain reward-derived "candidate" SNPs proposed for commercial use and examine their ability to predict OUD vs. ancestry in an out-of-sample test set (N = 1000, stratified into equal groups of n = 250 cases and controls each of European and African ancestry). We rerun analyses with 8 random sets of allele-frequency matched SNPs. We contrast findings with 11 genome-wide significant variants for tobacco smoking. To document generalizability, we generate and test a random phenotype.

resultsNone of the 5 ML algorithms predict OUD better than chance when ancestry was balanced but were confounded with ancestry in an out-of-sample test. In addition, the algorithms preferentially predicted admixed subpopulations. Random sets of variants matched to the candidate SNPs by allele frequency produced similar bias. Genome-wide significant tobacco smoking variants were also confounded by ancestry. Finally, random SNPs predicting a random simulated phenotype show that the bias attributable to ancestral confounding could impact any ML-based genetic prediction.

conclusionsResearchers and clinicians are encouraged to be skeptical of claims of high prediction accuracy from ML-derived genetic algorithms for polygenic traits like addiction, particularly when using candidate variants.

Indexed as

Multifactorial InheritanceOpioid-Related DisordersBlack PeopleHumansMachine LearningPolymorphism, Single NucleotideAlgorithmic biasAncestryCandidate genesMachine learningOpioid use disorder

Identifiers

PMID34710714
PMCPMC9358969
OpenAlexW3205507750

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.