Exploring the influences of education, intelligence and income on mental disorders

Previous studies have shown that educational attainment (EA), intelligence and income are key factors associated with mental disorders. However, the direct effects of each factor on major mental disorders are unclear.

We aimed to evaluate the overall and independent causal effects of the three psychosocial factors on common mental disorders.

Using genome-wide association study summary datasets, we performed Mendelian randomisation (MR) and multivariable MR (MVMR) analyses to assess potential associations between the 3 factors (EA, N=766 345; household income, N=392 422; intelligence, N=146 808) and 13 common mental disorders, with sample sizes ranging from 9907 to 807 553. Inverse-variance weighting was employed as the main method in the MR analysis.

Our MR analysis showed that (1) higher EA was a protective factor for eight mental disorders but contributed to anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder (BD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD); (2) higher intelligence was a protective factor for five mental disorders but a risk factor for OCD and ASD; (3) higher household income protected against 10 mental disorders but confers risk for anorexia nervosa. Our MVMR analysis showed that (1) higher EA was a direct protective factor for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and insomnia but a direct risk factor for schizophrenia, BD and ASD; (2) higher intelligence was a direct protective factor for schizophrenia but a direct risk factor for major depressive disorder (MDD) and ASD; (3) higher income was a direct protective factor for seven mental disorders, including schizophrenia, BD, MDD, ASD, post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD and anxiety disorder.

Our study reveals that education, intelligence and income intertwine with each other. For each factor, its independent effects on mental disorders present a more complex picture than its overall effects.