Evidence suggests that PTSD may be a causal risk factor for subsequent depression; however, associations are likely complex, involving bidirectional causality, common risk factors, and common vulnerabilities.
But, she added, "We could not distinguish whether the mobility was a causal risk factor or merely an intermediate variable of other risk factors".
The commission has argued in the past that a more rounded way of measuring poverty – taking greater account of causal risk factors – is sensible".
She is interested in using population genetics, epidemiology, and Mendelian randomization to define causal risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Burgess, S., Scott, R. A., Timpson, N. J., Davey Smith, G. & Thompson, S. G. Using published data in Mendelian randomization: a blueprint for efficient identification of causal risk factors.
Targeting causal risk factors and assessing mechanistic change can help devise efficacious universal or classroom based prevention programs.
The intervention was based on the at-that-time relatively new scientific information on the main causal risk factors.
Intriguingly, recent genetic studies of schizophrenia also identify these genes, raising the possibility that the well-known link between smoking and schizophrenia may be due, in part, to smoking being a causal risk factor for schizophrenia.
That study was itself called into question a year later, when Craig Anderson and colleagues published a meta-analysis arguing that playing violent video games poses a causal risk for aggressive behaviour.
If they are in fact a causal risk factor this would justify the design and evaluation of interventions designed to enhance reading skills and/or remediate problems.
The 129X1/SvJ strain in contrast, might be better suited to experimental studies of causal risk factors expected to lower PPI and increase amphetamine sensitivity.
