Does COVID-19 increase the risk of neuropsychiatric sequelae? Evidence from a mendelian randomization approach
Open Access
- 19 March 2022
- journal article
- letter
- Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. in World Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 12 (3), 536-540
- https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v12.i3.536
Abstract
Observational studies based on electronic health records (EHR) report an increased risk of neurological/neuropsychiatric sequelae for patients who have had coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, these studies may suffer from biases such as unmeasured confounding, residual reverse causality, or lack of precision in EHR-based diagnoses. To rule out these biases, we tested causal links between COVID-19 and different potential neurological/neuropsychiatric sequelae through a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis of summary statistics from large Genome-Wide Association Scans of susceptibility to COVID-19 and different neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including major depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, stroke, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. We found robust evidence suggesting that COVID-19 – notably the hospitalized and most severe forms – carries an increased risk of neuropsychiatric sequelae, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, and to a lesser extent anxiety disorder. In line with a large longitudinal EHR-based study, this evidence was stronger for more severe COVID-19 forms. These results call for a targeted screening strategy to tackle the post-COVID neuropsychiatric pandemic.Keywords
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