These findings do not identify specific genetic or environmental factors related to SR or CON that contribute to MDD and AUD. Molecular genetic research is needed to further the progress in this area. Notably, the RDoC proposal suggests that transdiagnostic risk factors, such as the negative valence and control systems, are more likely to map onto the biological systems that drive psychopathology. That being said, the search for genetic markers of personality traits has not yet yielded robust findings, and the current understanding is that any genes identified will be of extremely small effect and require very large samples to be discovered (e.g. Genetics of Personality Consortium et al. 2015, n > 50 000, 100 + significant genetic associations; Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium et al. 2014). Notably, de Moor et al. (2015) used polygenic risk scores (i.e. a composite of the top risk alleles) to explain 1% of the variance in neuroticism from the top markers via meta-analysis of 27 studies and over 63 000 participants.
