Opioid use disorder and dementia risk: evidence from observational and genetic analyses in diverse ancestry cohorts
Sara Javidnia, James M. Roe, Ville Karhunen, Dipender Gill, Steven Bell, Joseph D. Deak, Daniel Levey, Rachel L. Kember, Henry R. Kranzler, Héléne Toinét Cronjé, Stephen Burgess, Joel Gelernter, Klaus P. Ebmeier, Anya Topiwala · 2026
Read Opioid use disorder and dementia risk: evidence from observational and genetic analyses in diverse ancestry cohorts by Sara Javidnia, James M. Roe, Ville Karhunen, Dipender Gill, Steven Bell, Joseph D. Deak, Daniel Levey, Rachel L. Kember, Henry R. Kranzler, Héléne Toinét Cronjé, Stephen Burgess, Joel Gelernter, Klaus P. Ebmeier, Anya Topiwala (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13240559.txt.
Description
Sara Javidnia and thirteen co-authors test whether opioid use disorder raises the risk of dementia. Their records study covered about 222,500 veterans of European and African ancestry in the Million Veteran Program. A genetic method added data from genome studies of over six million people, and a small imaging group contributed brain scans tracked over time. The disorder came with a clearly higher rate of dementia overall, plus higher rates of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
The genetic analysis backed a possible causal link, with inherited liability to the disorder tied to higher dementia odds. Variation in the gene for the main opioid receptor also tracked with dementia risk. Brain structure, though, showed no link with genetic risk scores. The authors read the pattern as evidence that opioid pathways may feed into brain degeneration.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sara Javidnia, James M. Roe, Ville Karhunen, Dipender Gill, Steven Bell, Joseph D. Deak, Daniel Levey, Rachel L. Kember, Henry R. Kranzler, Héléne Toinét Cronjé, Stephen Burgess, Joel Gelernter, Klaus P. Ebmeier, Anya Topiwala |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 34 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |