# Mental health and chronic disease: A psycheMERGE investigation into the shared biology underlying psychiatric disorders and their physical comorbidities

> **NIH NIH R56** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · $804,559

## Abstract

Neuropsychiatric disorders are associated with significantly increased morbidity and mortality.
Chronic complex diseases including cardiovascular disease (CVD) are the primary drivers of
premature death among individuals with psychiatric disorders. While there is evidence that
modifiable risk factors (i.e., smoking, weight, medication use, etc.) increase risk, they do not
fully account for the excess morbidity and mortality in this population. The growing availability of
large-scale biobanks linking electronic health records (EHRs) to biospecimens has created a
powerful, but still relatively untapped, opportunity for psychiatric research aimed at addressing
this excess morbidity and mortality. In 2007, the National Human Genome Research Institute
(NHGRI) organized the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) network which
brought together investigators around the U.S. to facilitate EHR-based genomic research and
the implementation of genomic medicine. We have created a new, large-scale collaborative
consortium—PsycheMERGE—that leverages the resources and existing infrastructure of the
eMERGE network, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), and local EHR and biobank
resources. This application uses EHR and genomic data across multiple health care systems
(Partners Health Care, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Geisinger Health Systems)
that are collaborative partners in the PsycheMERGE network. Our preliminary data also
demonstrates that polygenic risk for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with
important prognostic biomarkers of CVD widely available within the EHR. Building on this
preliminary data, our first aim is to discover pleiotropic genes contributing to MDD risk, CVD
risk, and known CVD biomarkers which we hypothesize will also point to important pathways
involved in the biology of MDD. In aim 2 we employ a population epidemiological approach to
investigate the moderating effects of biopsychosocial variables on the genetic and phenotypic
risk factors linking MDD and CVD. Finally, in aim 3 we characterize the phenotypic and genomic
relationships between each of three common severe mental illnesses, and the rest of the
medical phenome including >500 clinical lab tests in over 300,000 individuals with data present
in the EHR. There is an urgent public health need to improve care and treatment of psychiatric
disorders and their comorbidities. The proposed research includes a comprehensive set of
integrative analyses aimed at investigating the genetic, clinical, and psychosocial risk factors
that contribute to the development of psychiatric disorders and their life-threatening
comorbidities in the context of a national network of EHRs and associated biobanks.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9981494
- **Project number:** 5R56MH120736-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Lea K Davis
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $804,559
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-20 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9981494

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9981494, Mental health and chronic disease: A psycheMERGE investigation into the shared biology underlying psychiatric disorders and their physical comorbidities (5R56MH120736-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9981494. Licensed CC0.

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