Investigating the mechanisms that underlie the associations between health- related behaviours and psychopathology (360G-Wellcome-224092_Z_21_Z)

Mental health problems have a significant impact on society. Health-related behaviours such as sleep, exercise, dietary habits, alcohol use and smoking are modifiable and may be important risk-increasing or protective behaviours associated with depression, anxiety and psychosis. The biological and causal mechanisms underlying these associations are, however, poorly understood. Additionally, both children’s and their parent’s health-related behaviours are associated with childhood mental health symptoms, suggesting that intergenerational mechanisms may be important. During this fellowship, I will use advanced genetically informed designs to investigate whether shared biological pathways and causal relationships may explain associations between health-related behaviours and mental health. I will identify genes involved in these associations and investigate their biological implications. Causal relationships will be investigated using new methods that mitigate bias due to unmeasured confounders, and whilst accounting for intergenerational transmission of risk. I will investigate whether genetic or environmental mechanisms can account for intergenerational associations. Findings will advance aetiological models and inform causal inference. Confirming causality will be essential knowledge to help prioritise targets for intervention. Findings can inform whether interventions will be most promising when aimed at parents, in the case of environmentally mediated routes of transmission, or individuals, in cases of genetic transmission risk.