著者

沼田 周助

出版者

公益社団法人 日本ビタミン学会

雑誌

ビタミン (ISSN:0006386X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.88, no.8, pp.413-418, 2014

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Previous meta-analyses of studies on the association between blood homocysteine concentration and schizophrenia suggest that elevated blood homocysteine concentration is a risk factor for schizophrenia. However, observational studies on this association have potential problems such as confounding and reverse causation. Mendelian randomization analysis is a method to analyze instrumental variables using genetic variants and can be used for assessing causal relationships. Therefore, we used this Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the association between blood homocysteine concentration and schizophrenia. As a result, we demonstrated that increased blood homocysteine concentration might be associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia in the Japanese population. This result will offer important insight into the pathophysiology and treatments of schizophrenia.