THURSDAY, Dec. 28, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Anxiety and depression do not cause Meniere disease (MD), or vice versa, but elevated neuroticism is causative for anxiety, depression, and MD, according to a study published online Dec. 20 in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Huadong Wu, M.D., from Nanchang University in China, and colleagues conducted two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to explore the causal relationship among anxiety, depression, neuroticism, and MD. Genome-wide association studies included data from 357,957 participants.

The researchers found that anxiety and depression are not causes of MD on MR analyses, nor does MD cause anxiety or depression. An elevated neuroticism sum score can cause anxiety, depression, and MD; however, MD did not cause an increase in the neuroticism sum score. Causes of MD included the five subclusters of neuroticism: often feel lonely, mood often goes up and down, often feel fed-up, feelings easily hurt, and sensitivity to environmental stress and adversity. In a multivariate MR analysis, the five neuroticism subclusters had a collinear relationship.

“Our conclusions are derived from a genetic standpoint, aiming to illuminate possible therapeutic avenues for clinical practitioners,” the authors write.

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