Bidirectional influence between benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer, and prostatitis and mental disorders: two-sample and multivariate mendelian randomization analyses.

Background: We aimed to use Mendelian randomization (MR) to determine the causality between fifteen major mental disorders (MDs) and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer (PCa), and prostatitis.

Methods: The main MR analysis was performed using the inverse variance-weighted (IVW) method.

Results: The study found that insomnia (odds ratio [OR], 1.6190; p = .0017) was significantly associated with an increased risk of BPH, and mood disorders (OR, 1.1590; p = .0221) was nominally associated with an increased risk of BPH. Conversely, BPH was suggestively associated with a low epilepsy risk (OR, 0.9988; p = .0043), and was nominally associated with an increased risk of insomnia (OR, 1.0061; p = .0291). Furthermore, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was suggestively associated with a low PCa risk (OR = 0.9474; p = .0058). However, no causal relationship was observed between PCa and MDs. Finally, anorexia nervosa (OR, 1.1686; p = .0248) and depression (OR, 336.5383; p = .0308) were nominally positively correlated with prostatitis. Prostatitis was suggestively associated with increased risk of ADHD (OR, 1.0868; p = .0413).

Conclusion: Our findings provide clinicians with a basis for developing programs to prevent or treat MDs and prostatic diseases.