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The protective effect of relative carbohydrate intake on depression

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Elucidating potentially causal factors for depression and the direction of their impact could beneficially inform prevention strategies. Mendelian randomization revealed the protective role of increased relative carbohydrate intake in lowering depression risk. In addition, body mass index mediated this effect but to a lesser extent than the total effect size.

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Fig. 1: Relative carbohydrate intake reduces major depressive disorder risk.

References

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This is a summary of: Yao, S. et al. Bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis identifies causal associations between relative carbohydrate intake and depression. Nat. Human Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01412-9 (2022).

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The protective effect of relative carbohydrate intake on depression. Nat Hum Behav 6, 1452–1453 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01413-8

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