The CoLaus was designed to assess cardiovascular disease risk factors and to collect plasma samples for the study of genetic variants and biomarkers. The random sampling procedure was based on a list of Lausanne inhabitants aged 35–75 years (n = 56 694 in 2003), obtained from the population register of the city. From the original study, all 35 to 66 year-old participants were invited to participate in the psychiatric arm of the study; for more details on the rationale, design and methods of the study see Preisig [32]. All subjects who were sufficiently fluent in French or English and agreed to participate were included into the PsyCoLaus sub-study and underwent the psychiatric assessment between 2004 and 2008. The present analysis was restricted to Caucasians (92% of the sample). The study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee and was supported in part by GlaxoSmithKline. All participants were duly informed about this sponsorship, and consented for the use of biological samples and data by GlaxoSmithKline and its subsidiaries.
