Is there a causal relationship between executive function and liability to mental health and substance use? A Mendelian randomization approach.

ABSTRACT: Poorer performance in tasks testing executive function (EF) is associated with a range of psychopathologies such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety, as well as smoking and alcohol consumption. We used two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization to examine whether these may reflect causal relationships and the direction of causation. We used genome-wide association study summary data (N = 17 310 to 848 460) for a common EF factor score (cEF), schizophrenia, MDD, anxiety, smoking initiation, alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence and cannabis use disorder (CUD). We found evidence of increased cEF on reduced schizophrenia liability (OR = 0.10; CI: 0.05 to 0.19; p-value = 3.43 × 10^-12), MDD liability (OR = 0.52; CI: 0.38 to 0.72; p</

SUBMITTER: Burton SMI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9748493 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature