Gill D, et al. - Because psychosocial factors can affect the risk and recovery of ischemic stroke, researchers examined the impact of genetically determined risk of depression on these outcomes using the Mendelian Randomization (MR) Framework. In a discovery genome-wide association study involving 246,363 patients and 561,190 controls, genetic instruments for risk of depression were identified and further replicated in a separate population of 474,574 patients and 1,032,579 controls. Corresponding genetic association estimates were taken from 60,341 patients and 454,450 controls for ischemic stroke danger, with those taken from 6,021 patients for functional results 3 months after ischemic stroke. The authors discovered no MR proof of genetically determined depression risk influencing ischemic stroke risk, but they discovered coherent MR proof suggesting a possible impact on functional outcome following ischemic stroke. Given the prevalent incidence of morbidity associated with depression, these results could have consequences for prognosis and personalized post-stroke rehabilitation.