Our findings indicate the need for ways to integrate both strict and minimal phenotyping approaches to determine which loci to prioritize for follow-up functional analyses. They also indicate a need for means to assess symptoms for diagnosing MDD with specificity at scale, rather than reliance on minimal phenotyping. Fast and accurate diagnostic methods that use a limited number of questionnaire items are becoming available: for example, computerized adaptive diagnostic screening may be as effective for the diagnosis of MDD as an hour-long face-to-face clinician diagnostic interview61. There are ongoing attempts to convert behavioral health tracking data from phones or wearable devices into diagnostic information62. If successful, these attempts may lead to a dramatic expansion in the ability to collect data appropriate for psychiatric genetics.
