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Published on: January 7, 2014
Evaluating the Causal Relationship between Personality and Parkinson's Disease
Fuquan Zhang1,2, Ning Zhou1, Hongbao Cao3
1Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, China.
Current Neurovascular Research
|June 16, 2026
Summary
Neuroticism may protect against Parkinson's disease (PD), while PD might decrease openness. This research explores the bidirectional causal links between personality traits and PD risk.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Genetics
Background:
- Understanding personality is vital for Parkinson's disease (PD) progression monitoring and treatment evaluation.
- Causal links between personality traits and PD remain largely unexamined.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the bidirectional causal relationships between the Big Five personality traits and Parkinson's disease using Mendelian randomization.
- To elucidate the influence of personality on PD risk and vice versa.
Main Methods:
- Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses were performed to assess bidirectional causality.
- The inverse variance-weighted (IVW) method was the primary analysis approach.
- Weighted median, MR-Egger, and MR-PRESSO were used for sensitivity analyses.
Main Results:
- Genetically determined neuroticism showed a protective association with PD risk (OR: 0.84, p = 0.043).
- Parkinson's disease demonstrated a causal effect on reduced openness scores (OR: 0.70, p = 0.022).
- No significant causal effects were found for other personality traits in either direction.
Conclusions:
- Neuroticism may offer a protective effect against developing Parkinson's disease.
- Parkinson's disease appears to causally influence openness, potentially leading to lower scores.
- Findings suggest personality influences PD management and patient experience, warranting cautious interpretation due to population specificity and potential pleiotropy.
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