A key issue for common variant GWA studies is their relevance for pharmacotherapy. We conducted gene set analysis that compared the major depression GWA results to targets of antidepressant medications defined by pharmacological studies58, and found that 42 sets of genes encoding proteins bound by antidepressant medications were highly enriched for smaller major depression association P-values than expected by chance (42 drugs, rank enrichment test P=8.5×10−10). This finding connects our major depression genomic findings to MDD therapeutics, and suggests the salience of these results for novel lead compound discovery for MDD59.
