Genetic risk for depression tied to heart disease risk for women, not men
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Key takeaways:
- Genetic risk for major depression was tied to increased risk for AF, CAD and HF among women only.
- There was no significant link between schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and CVD for either men or women.
Genetically predicted major depression may present in women, but not men, with increased risk for arrhythmia disorders, coronary artery disease and heart failure, and risk may vary based on menopausal status, researchers reported.
Sonia Shah, PhD, MSc, group leader in genomics in health at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues conducted an analysis of the participant data in the UK Biobank to better understand the ties between polygenic risk for psychiatric disorders and risk for heart disease.
“In our study, the link between the genetic risk of depression and developing a cardiovascular disease was seen even among women who had never been diagnosed with depression or taken any psychiatric medications,” Shah said in a press release. “However, this link was not observed in men, despite an overall greater proportion of men developing heart disease.”
Shah and colleagues used polygenic scores derived from genome-wide association study summary statistics from 345,169 UK Biobank participants to assess for sex-based difference in higher genetic risk for bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia and the subsequent incident risk for atrial fibrillation, CAD and HF.
The findings were independently replicated in a BioVU cohort, which included 49,057 patients in outpatient settings at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
In the UK Biobank cohort, every 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in polygenic risk score for major depression was associated with incident risks for AF, CAD and HF among women, but not men, and remained significant even in the absence of any psychiatric diagnosis or medication use:
- AF (HR = 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02-1.06);
- CAD (HR = 1.07; 95% CI, 1.04-1.11); and
- HF (HR = 1.09; 95% CI, 1.06-1.13; P for all < .001).
Every SD increase in polygenic risk score for major depression and incident CAD among women was consistent regardless of menopausal status at baseline (HR premenopausal = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.06-1.42; P < .001; HR postmenopausal =1.07; 95% CI, 1.03-1.11; P < .001). Every SD increase in polygenic risk for major depression and incident AF and HF was only observed among women who were postmenopausal at baseline (HR for AF postmenopausal = 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06; P < .001; HR for HF postmenopausal = 1.1; 95% CI, 1.06-1.13; P < .001) and was higher compared with men (P < .001).
“Our research found that the higher risk of developing coronary artery disease ... was present regardless of whether the women were premenopausal or postmenopausal at recruitment,” Shah said in the release. “Frequent heart health checks are especially important for women who have a history of depression.”
Shah and colleagues reported no significant associations between polygenic risk for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and incident CVD for men or women.
The sex-specific association between polygenic risk for major depression and incident CAD among women was replicated in the BioVU cohort at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, according to the study.
“The variation between men and women could also not be explained by differences in traditional risk factors such as BMI, smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol,” Shah said in the release. “Our research highlights the need to understand this relationship separately in men and women.”
Reference:
- Study exposes link between genetic risk of depression and heart disease in women. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1066998. Published Dec. 4, 2024. Accessed Dec. 16, 2024.
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