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. 2023 Oct 6;4(1):74-82.
doi: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.09.006. eCollection 2024 Jan.

Investigating the Relationship Between Smoking Behavior and Global Brain Volume

Yoonhoo Chang  1 , Vera Thornton  1 , Ariya Chaloemtoem  1 , Andrey P Anokhin  1 , Janine Bijsterbosch  2 , Ryan Bogdan  3 , Dana B Hancock  4 , Eric Otto Johnson  5 , Laura J Bierut  1
Affiliations

Investigating the Relationship Between Smoking Behavior and Global Brain Volume

Yoonhoo Chang et al. Biol Psychiatry Glob Open Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have shown that brain volume is negatively associated with cigarette smoking, but there is an ongoing debate about whether smoking causes lowered brain volume or a lower brain volume is a risk factor for smoking. We address this debate through multiple methods that evaluate directionality: Bradford Hill's criteria, which are commonly used to understand a causal relationship in epidemiological studies, and mediation analysis.

Methods: In 32,094 participants of European descent from the UK Biobank dataset, we examined the relationship between a history of daily smoking and brain volumes, as well as an association of genetic risk score to ever smoking with brain volume.

Results: A history of daily smoking was strongly associated with decreased brain volume, and a history of heavier smoking was associated with a greater decrease in brain volume. The strongest association was between total gray matter volume and a history of daily smoking (effect size = -2964 mm3, p = 2.04 × 10-16), and there was a dose-response relationship with more pack years smoked associated with a greater decrease in brain volume. A polygenic risk score for smoking initiation was strongly associated with a history of daily smoking (effect size = 0.05, p = 4.20 × 10-84), but only modestly associated with total gray matter volume (effect size = -424 mm3, p = .01). Mediation analysis indicated that a history of daily smoking mediated the relationship between the smoking initiation polygenic risk score and total gray matter volume.

Conclusions: A history of daily smoking is strongly associated with a decreased total brain volume.

Keywords: Genetics; Global brain volume; Smoking; UK Biobank.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of the study. We examined: 1) the predictive ability of the smoking initiation polygenic risk score (PRS) for smoking for a history of daily smoking; 2) the association between the smoking initiation PRS for smoking initiation and brain measures; and 3) the association between smoking behaviors and brain measures. (Created with BioRender.com.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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