Environmental Factors in the Etiology of Mental Disorders in the Czech Republic

Ladislav Hosak; Kristyna Hosakova; Mohammad Malekirad; Dana Kamaradova Koncelikova; Jana Zapletalova; Klara Latalova

doi:10.2147/NDT.S379811

Environmental Factors in the Etiology of Mental Disorders in the Czech Republic

Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2023 Feb 7:19:349-359. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S379811. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ladislav Hosak¹, Kristyna Hosakova¹, Mohammad Malekirad¹, Dana Kamaradova Koncelikova², Jana Zapletalova³, Klara Latalova²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Charles University, School of Medicine in Hradec Kralove and University Hospital, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic.
² Department of Psychiatry, Palacky University Olomouc, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and University Hospital, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
³ Department of Medical Biophysics, Palacky University Olomouc, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Background: Both genetic and environmental factors are important in etiology of mental disorders. Calculating polyenviromic risk/protective scores provides an updated perspective in research on the environmental causes of psychiatric disorders. We aimed to compare environmental risk and protective factors in patients with psychosis or a mood disorder (PSYCH+MOOD) and those with an anxiety disorder (ANX).

Methods: We administered the internationally accepted questionnaire from the EUropean Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study, enriched with mood and anxiety disorder-relevant measures, to patients at two large university hospitals in the Czech Republic.

Results: Ninety-four PSYCH+MOOD patients (average age 42.5 years; 46 males) and 52 ANX patients (average age 47.2 years; 17 males) participated. Neither polyenviromic risk score nor polyenviromic protective score differed significantly between PSYCH+MOOD and ANX groups (p = 0.149; p = 0.466, respectively).

Conclusion: Scientific validity of the polyenviromic risk/protective score construct must still be demonstrated in large psychiatric samples, ideally in prospective studies. Nevertheless, researchers have already started to investigate environmental factors in the etiology of mental disorders in their complexity, similarly to polygenic risk scores.

Keywords: anxiety disorders; environmental factors; mood disorders; schizophrenia; stress.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the MH CZ – DRO (UHHK, grant number 00179906). The sponsor was not involved at any stage, from study design to submission of the paper for publication.