Causal relationship between bulimia nervosa and microstructural white matter: evidence from Mendelian randomization.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Observational studies suggest white matter (WM) microstructural anomalies are linked to bulimia nervosa (BN), but a direct causal relationship remains unestablished. This study aimed to investigate the causal impact of BN on WM microstructure.

Methods

We analyzed genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data from 2442 individuals to identify genetically predicted BN. Diffusion MRI were obtained from the UK Biobank. After assessing instrumental variable validity, we conducted Mendelian randomization (MR) using inverse variance weighting (IVW) as the primary method, followed by pleiotropy and heterogeneity tests.

Results

The MR analysis from BN to brain imaging-derived phenotypes showed that BN had significant causal effects on a union set of nine tracts (in

SUBMITTER: Wang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12089160 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature