Schizophrenia and co-morbidity risk: Evidence from a data driven phenomewide association study

Schizophrenia is a chronic debilitating psychiatric disorder with significant morbidity and mortality. In this study, we used information from 337,484 UK Biobank participants and performed PheWAS using schizophrenia genetic risk score on 1135 disease outcomes. Signals that passed the false discovery rate threshold were further analyzed for evidence on the causality of the association. We extended the analysis to 30 serum, four urine, and six neuroimaging biomarkers to identify biomarkers that could be affected by schizophrenia. Schizophrenia GRS was associated with 54 (39 distinct) disease outcomes including schizophrenia in the PheWAS analysis. Of these, a causal association were found with 10 distinct diseases in the MR analysis. Schizophrenia causally linked with higher odds of anxiety (OR = 1.41, 95%CI 1.12 to 1.21), bipolar disorder (OR = 1.52, 95%CI 1.36 to 1.70), major depressive disorder (OR = 1.12, 95%CI 1.08 to 1.16) and suicidal ideation (OR = 1.30, 95%CI 1.19 to 1.42). Lower odds were found for several diseases including type 1 diabetes, coronary atherosclerosis and some musculoskeletal disorders. In analyses using biomarkers, schizophrenia was associated with lower serum 25(OH)D, gamma glutamyltransferase, cystatin C, serum creatinine. However, we did not find association with any of the brain imaging markers. Our analyses confirmed the co-existence of schizophrenia with other mental health disorders but did not otherwise suggest strong effects on disease risk. Biomarker analyses reflected associations which could be explained by unhealthy lifestyles, suggesting patients with schizophrenia may benefit from screening for and managing broader health aspects.