Researchers have just been able to identify a genetic link between a range of mental health disorders and blood biomarkers. A recent study provides evidence that some substance measures within a person's blood may be involved in the causation of mental illnesses.
People often disassociate mental health from the body's overall health, but this is far from the truth. Evidence has proven time and time that several biochemical substances are involved in diseases such as autoimmune conditions, diabetes, and more that impact the brain's natural function.
Mental Health and Genetics
It has proven to be challenging to analyze the role of blood biomarkers in mental health conditions. Many studies in the area often can't make strong conclusions with small sample sizes.
One solution is used to measure genetic influences and mental illness on both blood samples. Genetics is vital since we now have data from millions of participants who volunteer in research studies.
Blood biomarkers and mental illness are known to geneticists as complex traits since numerous genes are involved mixed in with environmental factors.
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Blood Biomarkers and Mental Illnesses
The study published in the journal Science Advances, titled "Genetic estimates of correlation and causality between blood-based biomarkers and psychiatric disorders," aimed to use genetics to investigate the link between nine mental health disorders and 50 factors that are conventionally measured in routine blood tests like vitamins, enzymes, cholesterol, and indications of inflammation.
The study was first able to confirm the existence of a genetic correlation between mental illness and blood biomarkers, which was more widespread than previously shown. Genetic correlations equate to the effects of DNA sequence changes on a person's risks of a mental illness, and the levels of a specific biomarker were more similar to each other than any that could occur by chance.
One example is a positive genetic correlation between white blood cell count and depression. This could be evidence that some processes in the human body can influence both white blood cells and depression. If it is possible to identify the shared process, it will lead to a better understanding of the causes of depression and can be targeted via treatment.
Although the study showcases a correlation between mental illness genetics and factors in the blood, it does not demonstrate whether blood biomarkers are involved in the causality of mental illness.
The gold standard is to conduct clinical trials where patients receive treatment or placebo randomly to distinguish correlation from causation. However, the said trials are often difficult to conduct and expensive. Hence, researchers used DNA variants associated with changes in blood biomarkers to act as a natural clinical trial. The process allows researchers to use the randomness of inherited DNA variants in a complex method, reports NeuroSciences.
The trial found evidence that some substances measured in the blood in routine sampling may be involved in the cause of some mental disorders. Proteins related to the body's immune system may be involved in anorexia, schizophrenia, and depression.
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