Risky behaviors and Parkinson disease

OBJECTIVE: To examine causal associations between risky behavior phenotypes and Parkinson disease using a mendelian randomization approach. METHODS: We used 2-sample mendelian randomization to generate unconfounded estimates using summary statistics from 2 independent, large meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies on risk-taking behaviors (n = 370,771-939,908) and Parkinson disease (cases n = 9,581, controls n = 33,245). We used the inverse variance weighted method as the main method for judging causality. RESULTS: = 0.0049). CONCLUSION: These findings provide support for a causal relationship between general risk tolerance and Parkinson disease and may provide new insights into the pathogenic mechanisms leading to the development of Parkinson disease.