Global Diversity in Bipolar Disorder: The Role of Cultural and Social Differences With a View to Genomics

As global gene discovery efforts move away from a historic Eurocentric focus and advance toward embracing more diverse populations, consideration of sociocultural aspects of bipolar disorder (BD) become critical to their success. Diversity can be leveraged to accelerate gene discovery, via different patterns of linkage disequilibrium that lead to greater resolution of mapping association signals, and convergence of genes and pathways implicated within and across diverse ancestral groups, improving our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of disease. However, it is not just the differences in linkage disequilibrium structure and allele frequency that drive differences in genomic signals between populations. In this review, we focus on the role of social, cultural, and societal factors on BD and their potential impact on disease prevalence, clinical course and outcome, and disease burden. Social, cultural, and geographical differences in expression of symptoms and frequency of clinical subtypes in BD present both opportunities for and challenges to the field. In this era of global multiancestry research, resources that facilitate the collection and harmonization of data from culturally and ancestrally diverse population groups will enhance our ability to gain true biological understanding. Such resources are essential to disambiguate the genetic and environmental components of disease risk, as well as inform effective lifestyle interventions to improve outcome for global citizens living with BD.