Description of confounding factors.

BackgroundObservational studies have previously shown a potential link between psycho-emotional disorders, such as mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). However, the credibility of these associations could be influenced by various confounding factors. Consequently, our study sought to employ a Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to elucidate a potential causal relationship between psycho-emotional disorders and GERD.MethodInformation on independent genetic variants linked to mood swings, highly strung, and anxious feelings was gathered from European populations participating in the IEU Open GWAS research. The FinnGen Consortium provided the genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics for GERD. Our analysis employed the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method under the random effects model as the main analytical method. To further bolster our findings, we employed the weighted median and MR Egger methods. In addition, we conducted a series of sensitivity analyses.ResultsOur study supports the existence of a causal relationship between psycho-emotional disorders and GERD. Mood swings, highly strung, and anxious feelings adversely affected GERD risk (mood swings: OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.19–5.59, p = 3.09 × 10–2; highly strung: OR 5.63, 95% CI 1.77–17.94, p = 3.42 × 10–3; anxious feelings: OR 2.48, 95% CI 1.08–4.33, p = 2.89 × 10–2).ConclusionThis Mendelian randomization study provides robust support for the notion that mood swings, highly strung and anxious feelings, are associated with an increased risk of developing GERD.</div

The leave-one-out method of the causal relationship between mood swings and GERD.

The leave-one-out method of the causal relationship between mood swings and GERD.</p

The leave-one-out method of the causal relationship between highly strung and GERD.

The leave-one-out method of the causal relationship between highly strung and GERD.</p

Forestplot of associations between exposures and risk of GERD in MR analysis.

Forestplot of associations between exposures and risk of GERD in MR analysis.</p

Funnel plot of Mendelian analysis of highly strung and GERD.

Funnel plot of Mendelian analysis of highly strung and GERD.</p

The causal relationship between mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings and GERD in Mendelian randomization.

The causal relationship between mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings and GERD in Mendelian randomization.</p

Funnel plot of Mendelian analysis of anxious feelings and GERD.

Funnel plot of Mendelian analysis of anxious feelings and GERD.</p

Mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings, and GERD in MR analysis of horizontal pleiotropy.

Mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings, and GERD in MR analysis of horizontal pleiotropy.</p

Heterogeneity of mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings and GERD in MR analysis.

Heterogeneity of mood swings, highly strung, anxious feelings and GERD in MR analysis.</p

Scatterplot of MR analysis to assess the causal relationship between highly strung and GERD.

Scatterplot of MR analysis to assess the causal relationship between highly strung and GERD.</p