Smoking may increase the usage of antidepressant: evidence from genomic perspective analysis

This study uses the two-sample Mendelian randomization (TSMR) method to explore the causal relationships between smoking initiation (SMKI), never smoking (NSMK), past tobacco smoking (PTSMK), and the usage of antidepressants (ATD). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with genome-wide significance (P < 5E-08) related to SMKI, NSMK, and PTSMK were selected from the genome-wide association study (GWAS) database as instrumental variables (IVs). The main method, inverse variance weighted (IVW), was utilized to investigate the causal relationship. The results demonstrated a positive causal relationship between SMKI and ATD use, where SMKI leads to an increase in ATD use. Conversely, NSMK and PTSMK showed a negative causal relationship with ATD use, meaning that NSMK and PTSMK lead to a reduction in ATD use. Additionally, sensitivity analysis showed that the results of this study were robust and reliable. Using the TSMR method and from a genetic perspective, this study found that SMKI leads to an increase in ATD use, while NSMK and PTSMK reduce ATD use.