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The following is a summary of “Causal Associations between Severe Mental Illness and Sepsis: A Mendelian Randomization Study,” published in the February 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Yang et al.

Researchers performed a retrospective Mendelian randomization (MR) study to investigate the causal relationship between severe mental illness (SMI) and both sepsis and sepsis mortality.

They utilized Genome-wide association (GWAS) data for major depression and schizophrenia as the exposure and GWAS data for sepsis and sepsis mortality as the outcome. Instruments included genetic variants significantly associated with the exposure (P value<1×10 -6 ). The IVW method was primarily employed for analysis. Additionally, Cochrane’s Q test assessed heterogeneity and the MR-Egger intercept test identified horizontal pleiotropy.

The results showed 108 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to predict significant depression and 260 SNPs were chosen for schizophrenia. Genetically predicted major depression was tentatively linked to a higher sepsis risk (OR=1.13, 95% CI 1.02-1.26, P=0.023). Conversely, MR analysis did not indicate an association between schizophrenia and sepsis risk (OR=0.95, 95%CI 0.88-1.03, P=0.241). No significant causal evidence was found for genetically predicted SMI in sepsis mortality. No heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy were detected. A likely link was found between genetically predicted significant depression and increased sepsis risk in individuals of European descent.

Investigators concluded that depression was associated with an increased risk of subsequent infection and sepsis, suggesting that clinicians should be more vigilant for these complications in their depressed patients.

Source: frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1341559/abstract