Schowe Alicia M, Godara Malvika, Czamara Darina, Adli Mazda, Singer Tania, Binder Elisabeth B
Department of Genes and Environment, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.
Graduate School of Systemic Neuroscience, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025 Feb;275(1):61-73. doi: 10.1007/s00406-024-01795-y. Epub 2024 Apr 8.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was accompanied by an increase in mental health challenges including depression, stress, loneliness, and anxiety. Common genetic variants can contribute to the risk for psychiatric disorders and may present a risk factor in times of crises. However, it is unclear to what extent polygenic risk played a role in the mental health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we investigate whether polygenic scores (PGSs) for mental health-related traits can distinguish between four resilience-vulnerability trajectories identified during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns in 2020/21. We used multinomial regression in a genotyped subsample (n = 1316) of the CovSocial project. The most resilient trajectory characterized by the lowest mental health burden and the highest recovery rates served as the reference group. Compared to this most resilient trajectory, a higher value on the PGS for the well-being spectrum decreased the odds for individuals to be in one of the more vulnerable trajectories (adjusted R-square = 0.3%). Conversely, a higher value on the PGS for neuroticism increased the odds for individuals to be in one of the more vulnerable trajectories (adjusted R-square = 0.2%). Latent change in mental health burden extracted from the resilience-vulnerability trajectories was not associated with any PGS. Although our findings support an influence of PGS on mental health during COVID-19, the small added explained variance suggests limited utility of such genetic markers for the identification of vulnerable individuals in the general population.
2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行伴随着心理健康挑战的增加，包括抑郁、压力、孤独和焦虑。常见的基因变异可能会增加患精神疾病的风险，并且在危机时期可能是一个风险因素。然而，目前尚不清楚多基因风险在对COVID-19大流行的心理健康反应中起到了多大作用。在本研究中，我们调查了与心理健康相关特征的多基因评分（PGS）是否能够区分在2020/21年COVID-19大流行及相关封锁期间确定的四种恢复力-易感性轨迹。我们在CovSocial项目的一个基因分型子样本（n = 1316）中使用了多项回归。以最低心理健康负担和最高恢复率为特征的最具恢复力的轨迹作为参考组。与这种最具恢复力的轨迹相比，幸福感谱PGS上的较高值降低了个体处于较易受影响轨迹之一的几率（调整后R平方 = 0.3%）。相反，神经质PGS上的较高值增加了个体处于较易受影响轨迹之一的几率（调整后R平方 = 0.2%）。从恢复力-易感性轨迹中提取的心理健康负担的潜在变化与任何PGS均无关联。尽管我们的研究结果支持PGS在COVID-19期间对心理健康有影响，但增加的解释方差较小，表明此类基因标记在识别普通人群中易受影响个体方面的效用有限。
