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. 2025 Jan 3:16:1-5.
doi: 10.2147/JBM.S470340. eCollection 2025.

Relationship Between ABO Blood Groups and Mental Disorders

Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross  1 , Ana Buadze  1 , En-Young N Wagner  2 , Mario Müller  1 , Erich Seifritz  1 , Setareh Ranjbar  3 , Jennifer Glaus  4 , Enrique Castelao  3 , Marie-Pierre F Strippoli  3 , Caroline L Vandeleur  3 , Martin Preisig  3 , Roland von Känel  2
Affiliations

Relationship Between ABO Blood Groups and Mental Disorders

Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross et al. J Blood Med. .

Abstract

Previous research has unveiled an intriguing positive association between the AB blood group and mental disorders in general. In this study, we compared ABO blood groups with five major groups of mental disorders to attain a higher level of specificity. The analyses were conducted using data from the CoLaus|PsyCoLaus study (N=5111). They revealed that the AB blood group exhibited a positive association with both neurodevelopmental disorders (RR 2.29, CI 1.38-3.82) and substance use disorders (RR 2.25, CI 1.38-3.65) after adjusting for sex and childhood adversities. These associations could be replicated with respect to the familial aggregation of neurodevelopmental and substance use disorders. Large databases are needed to achieve more detailed results related to specific disorders.

Keywords: ABO blood groups; familial aggregation; neurodevelopmental disorders; substance use disorders.

Plain language summary

Prior research has shown an interesting link between the AB blood group and mental disorders. In our study, we used data from a large Swiss population-based epidemiological cohort study to learn more about this connection. We examined the relationship between ABO blood groups and five major groups of mental disorders: neurodevelopmental, early onset anxiety, later onset anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. Our analyses revealed associations between the AB blood group and neurodevelopmental and substance use disorders. The findings point to an unknown immunological mechanism that may play a role in the development of neurodevelopmental and substance use disorders.

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Conflict of interest statement

Prof. Dr. Martin Preisig reports grants from CHUV, during the conduct of the study. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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