Mendelian randomization: causal inference leveraging genetic data

Abstract

Mendelian randomization (MR) leverages genetic information to examine the causal relationship between phenotypes allowing for the presence of unmeasured confounders. MR has been widely applied to unresolved questions in epidemiology, making use of summary statistics from genome-wide association studies on an increasing number of human traits. However, an understanding of essential concepts is necessary for the appropriate application and interpretation of MR. This review aims to provide a non-technical overview of MR and demonstrate its relevance to psychiatric research. We begin with the origins of MR and the reasons for its recent expansion, followed by an overview of its statistical methodology. We then describe the limitations of MR, and how these are being addressed by recent methodological advances. We showcase the practical use of MR in psychiatry through three illustrative examples – the connection between cannabis use and psychosis, the link between intelligence and schizophrenia, and the search for modifiable risk factors for depression. The review concludes with a discussion of the prospects of MR, focusing on the integration of multi-omics data and its extension to delineating complex causal networks.

179 Plasma lipids and risk of intracranial aneurysms: A genetic study of association and causality

“…1, utilizing SNPs as a genetic instrument. Three assumptions are fundamental to a valid MR study: 1) relevance assumption: IVs are strongly linked with the exposure; 2) independence assumption: IVs are independent of any confounding factors to the exposure-outcome relationship; 3) exclusion restriction assumption: IVs solely impact the outcome by means of the exposure [15] .…”