Heart abnormality associates with a wide spectrum of psychiatric disorders: Evidence from Mendelian randomization analyses

Psychiatric disorders and heart abnormality are closely interconnected. Previous knowledge has been well-established that psychiatric disorders can lead to increased cardiovascular morbidity and even sudden cardiac death. Conversely, whether heart abnormality contributes to psychiatric disorders remains rarely studied. The work by Zhang <i>et al</i> pointed out that chronic heart failure had effects on the anxiety and depression (AD) severity, and indices including left ventricular ejection fraction, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and interleukin-6 were independent risk factors for AD severity. In addition to the aforementioned AD, we herein find that heart failure might additionally impact the development of autism spectrum disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (albeit <i>P</i> > 0.05), and significantly protects against the presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), [odds ratio (OR) = 0.61, <i>P</i> = 0.0071] by using a Mendelian randomization analysis. Bradycardia is also a protective factor for ADHD (OR = 0.61, <i>P</i> = 0.0095), whereas hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a mild risk factor for schizophrenia (OR = 1.02, <i>P</i> = 0.032). These data suggest a wide spectrum of psychiatric disorders secondary to heart abnormality, and we highlight more psychiatric care that should be paid to patients with heart abnormality.