Discrimination can play an important role in the development of anxiety even after accounting for genetic risks. An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled “
Discrimination and Anxiety: Using multiple polygenic scores to control for genetic liability” reports that discrimination is associated with anxiety and other related disorders, even after controlling for other relevant variables such as currently identified genomic risk variants.
The senior author of the study,
Robert Krueger, PhD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, remarks that "Anxiety is one of the most significant issues in mental health today.” Krueger believes that the team’s findings highlights the importance of reducing discrimination and thereby improving overall public health.
Composed by Flora Pollack, communications assistant.
