Disentangling sex differences in the shared genetic architecture of posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic experiences, and social support with body size and composition

There is a well-known association of traumatic experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with body size and composition, including consistent differences between sexes. However, the biology underlying these associations is unclear. To understand the genetic underpinnings of this complex relationship, we investigated genome-wide datasets informative of African and European ancestries from the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium, the UK Biobank, the GIANT Consortium, and the Million Veteran Program. We used genome-wide association statistics to estimate sex-specific genetic correlations (r_g) of traumatic experiences, social support, and PTSD with multiple anthropometric traits. After multiple testing corrections (false discovery rate, FDR q < 0.05), we observed 58 significant r_g relationships in females (e.g., childhood physical abuse and body mass index, BMI r_g = 0.245, p = 3.88 × 10⁻¹⁰) and 21 significant r_g relationships in males (e.g., been involved in combat or exposed to warzone and leg fat percentage; r_g = 0.405, p = 4.42 × 10⁻¹⁰). We performed causal inference analyses of these genetic overlaps using Mendelian randomization and latent causal variable approaches. Multiple female-specific putative causal relationships were observed linking body composition/size with PTSD (e.g., leg fat percentage→PTSD; beta = 0.319, p = 3.13 × 10⁻⁹), traumatic experiences (e.g., childhood physical abuse→waist circumference; beta = 0.055, p = 5.07 × 10⁻⁴), and childhood neglect (e.g., “someone to take you to doctor when needed as a child”→BMI; beta = −0.594, p = 1.09 × 10⁻⁵). In males, we observed putative causal effects linking anthropometric-trait genetic liabilities to traumatic experiences (e.g., BMI→childhood physical abuse; beta = 0.028, p = 8.19 × 10⁻³). Some of these findings were replicated in individuals of African descent although the limited sample size available did not permit us to conduct a sex-stratified analysis in this ancestry group. In conclusion, our findings provide insights regarding sex-specific causal networks linking anthropometric traits to PTSD, traumatic experiences, and social support.