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. 2023 Dec 8;14(12):2191.
doi: 10.3390/genes14122191.

Potential Causal Association between Depression and Oral Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Xiaobin Zhang  1 , Hehe Jiang  2 , Linlin Zhang  2 , Chunjing Li  1 , Chen Chen  2 , Mengzhen Xing  2 , Yuning Ma  2 , Yuxia Ma  1
Affiliations

Potential Causal Association between Depression and Oral Diseases: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Xiaobin Zhang et al. Genes (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Globally, oral diseases are common, pose an economic burden, and significantly decline the quality of life of affected individuals. Recently, researchers have substantially highlighted the effect of depression on oral disease incidence and development. In this study, we elucidated the correlation between depression and oral diseases.

Methods: Using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR), the association between depression and the risk of 17 oral diseases was evaluated. Three methods were used to perform MR analysis: the inverse variance-weighted, weighted median, and MR-Egger methods. Furthermore, Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, MR Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier test, and leave-one-out analysis were performed to analyze sensitivity.

Results: After implementing multiple test corrections, we observed that genetic susceptibility to depression was associated with an increased risk of mouth ulcers, toothache, loose teeth, bleeding gums, painful gums, chronic periodontitis, chronic tonsil and adenoid diseases, peritonsillar abscess, and excessive tooth attrition. However, a causal relationship between depression and other oral diseases was not observed. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the results.

Conclusions: We confirmed the causal relationship between depression and several oral diseases, thereby providing a novel viewpoint on the prevention and treatment of oral diseases. Our findings suggest the integration of depression control into routine clinical care to enhance the effectiveness of oral disease treatment.

Keywords: Mendelian randomization analysis; causal relationship; depression; genome-wide association studies; oral diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no competing interest that pertain to this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Three hypotheses underpin the Mendelian randomization study: 1. the independence of instrumental variables from confounding factors; 2. the instrumental variables has a close relationship with exposure; 3. instrumental variables exclusively influence outcomes through exposure, other than through any other way.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The schematic flow diagram of this study.
Figure 3
Figure 3
MR analysis from instrument variants for depression on the risk of 9 of the 17 studied oral diseases.
Figure 4
Figure 4
MR analysis from instrument variants for depression on the risk of 8 of the 17 studied oral diseases.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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