Here’s the mental illness you’re most likely to have based on your job

Our genes are valuable indicators of our future health. For several years, scientists have been working on genetic indicators to study mental health disorders. Called polygenic scores, they make it possible to assess an individual’s predisposition to developing certain pathologies. In Nature Human BehaviourAmerican researchers analyzed the links between this score and work.

Professions at greater risk of developing certain mental pathologies

According to their analysis, based on medical information from more than 400,000 people, people working in artistic fields and design are more likely to have a polygenic score associated with mental illness including anorexia, bipolar disorder, autism or depression. Individuals who work in a computer-related profession are more likely to have genes predisposing them to autism spectrum disorders. Teachers were more likely to have those related to anorexia and ADHD. For the latter, farmers, fishermen and loggers also have a greater risk of having the associated genetic score. As for social workers, they are potentially more vulnerable to depression.

Mental health: what are the links between the profession and the risk of mental disorders?

“Neuropsychiatric disorders are both common and highly heritable, but they remain highly stigmatized“, recalls Georgios Voloudakis, main author of this scientific article, Medical Xpress. In this work, the researcher and his team noted that the polygenic score does not make it possible to determine the socio-professional category of individuals. According to them, genetics has a minimal influence on professional choices, and the latter are rather conditioned by age, gender or level of education.

Work: mental health can influence career

On the other hand, they were interested in the obstacles that people with a genetic predisposition to certain disorders might face. “For example, we found that some associations linked to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are largely mediated by educational attainment, a key driver of career advancement.develops this specialist. This implies that systemic biases in education may disproportionately affect people with a higher genetic predisposition to ADHD, even if they never receive an actual diagnosis.” In the future, the research team wishes to continue its work to better understand how genetic variations associated with neuropsychiatric disorders influence our psychology and our state of health in general.