Causal influences of neuroticism on mental health and cardiovascular disease

We investigated the relationship between neuroticism and 16 mental and 18 physical traits using summary results of genome-wide association studies for these traits. LD score regression was used to investigate genetic correlations between neuroticism and the 34 health outcomes. Mendelian randomization was performed to investigate mutual causal relationships between neuroticism and the 34 health outcomes. Neuroticism genetically correlates with a majority of health-related traits and confers causal effects on 12 mental traits (major depressive disorder (MDD), insomnia, subjective well-being (SWB, negatively), schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, alcohol dependence, loneliness, anorexia nervosa, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and psychiatric disorders) and two physical diseases (cardiovascular disease and hypertensive disease). Conversely, MDD, SWB, and insomnia have a causal effect on neuroticism. We highlighted key genes contributing to the causal associations between neuroticism and MDD, including RBFOX1, RERE, SOX5, and TCF4, and those contributing to the causal associations between neuroticism and cardiovascular diseases, including MAD1L1, ARNTL, RERE, and SOX6. The present study indicates that genetic variation mediates the causal influences of neuroticism on mental health and cardiovascular diseases.