Genetic Predisposition and Smoking Linked to Mental Health Disorders
A recent study published in the Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica shed new light on the complex relationship between cigarette smoking, genetic predisposition, and mental health disorders. This research, based on an event history framework, offers fresh insights into the evolution of mental disorders in individuals' lives. The study, involving 337,140 participants of white British ancestry, aimed to estimate the contributions of genetic predisposition and smoking habits to hospitalizations for major depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Researchers calculated polygenic risk scores (PRS) for three key variables: ever smoking, pack-years of smoking as a proportion of adult life, and neuroticism. These PRS values, alongside self-reported smoking status (never, former, and present smoker), were entered into survival models to assess their impact on the risk of hospitalization for mental disorders.
The study unveiled that genetic predispositions significantly affect the risk of hospitalization for mental disorders. Specifically, the heritabilities (h2) for pack-years, ever smoking, and neuroticism were estimated at 23%, 5.7%, and 5.7%, respectively.
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