tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
BMC Psychiatry
. 2023 Dec 8;23(1):922.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-05433-0. Causal associations between COVID-19 and childhood mental disorders
Fei Chen[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hongbao Cao[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 2 [/SUP], Ancha Baranova[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Qian Zhao[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Fuquan Zhang[SUP] 5 6 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can invade both the peripheral and central nervous systems and impact the function of the brain. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the mutual influences between COVID-19 outcomes and childhood mental disorders.
Methods: We examined genetic correlations and potential causalities between three childhood mental disorders and three COVID-19 phenotypes by genetically proxied analyses. The three mental disorders included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, N = 292,548), Tourette's syndrome (TS, N = 14,307), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD, N = 46,350). The three COVID-19 traits included SARS-CoV-2 infection (N = 2,597,856), hospitalized COVID-19 (N = 2,095,324), and critical COVID-19 (N = 1,086,211). Literature-based analysis was used to build gene-based pathways connecting ADHD and COVID-19.
Results: ADHD was positively correlated with the three COVID-19 outcomes (R[SUB]g[/SUB]: 0.22 ~ 0.30). Our Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses found that ADHD confers a causal effect on hospitalized COVID-19 (odds ratio (OR): 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10-1.69). TS confers a causal effect on critical COVID-19 (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04-1.25). Genetic liability to the COVID-19 outcomes may not increase the risk for the childhood mental disorders. Pathway analysis identified several immunity-related genes that may link ADHD to COVID-19, including CRP, OXT, IL6, PON1, AR, TNFSF12, and IL10.
Conclusions: Our study suggests that both ADHD and TS may augment the severity of COVID-19 through immunity-related pathways. However, our results did not support a causal role of COVID-19 in the risk for the childhood mental disorders.
Keywords: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; Autism spectrum disorder; COVID-19; Mendelian randomization; Tourette’s syndrome.
. 2023 Dec 8;23(1):922.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-05433-0. Causal associations between COVID-19 and childhood mental disorders
Fei Chen[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hongbao Cao[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 2 [/SUP], Ancha Baranova[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Qian Zhao[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Fuquan Zhang[SUP] 5 6 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 38066446
- PMCID: PMC10704772
- DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-05433-0
Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can invade both the peripheral and central nervous systems and impact the function of the brain. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the mutual influences between COVID-19 outcomes and childhood mental disorders.
Methods: We examined genetic correlations and potential causalities between three childhood mental disorders and three COVID-19 phenotypes by genetically proxied analyses. The three mental disorders included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, N = 292,548), Tourette's syndrome (TS, N = 14,307), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD, N = 46,350). The three COVID-19 traits included SARS-CoV-2 infection (N = 2,597,856), hospitalized COVID-19 (N = 2,095,324), and critical COVID-19 (N = 1,086,211). Literature-based analysis was used to build gene-based pathways connecting ADHD and COVID-19.
Results: ADHD was positively correlated with the three COVID-19 outcomes (R[SUB]g[/SUB]: 0.22 ~ 0.30). Our Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses found that ADHD confers a causal effect on hospitalized COVID-19 (odds ratio (OR): 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10-1.69). TS confers a causal effect on critical COVID-19 (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04-1.25). Genetic liability to the COVID-19 outcomes may not increase the risk for the childhood mental disorders. Pathway analysis identified several immunity-related genes that may link ADHD to COVID-19, including CRP, OXT, IL6, PON1, AR, TNFSF12, and IL10.
Conclusions: Our study suggests that both ADHD and TS may augment the severity of COVID-19 through immunity-related pathways. However, our results did not support a causal role of COVID-19 in the risk for the childhood mental disorders.
Keywords: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; Autism spectrum disorder; COVID-19; Mendelian randomization; Tourette’s syndrome.