Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
11883728
TITLE
Genetic and environmental influences on premenstrual symptoms in an Australian twin sample.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND
We aimed to explore the prevalence and factor structure of premenstrual symptoms in a sample of Australian twins; to investigate phenotypic associations between reported premenstrual symptoms, personality and reproductive dimensions; and to identify the relative contributions of genes and environment to premenstrual symptoms and the extent of genetic and environmental covariation with the personality trait Neuroticism and lifetime major depression.
METHOD NlmCategory: METHODS
Seven hundred and twenty female twin pairs (454 monozygotic and 266 dizygotic) from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Twin Register reported on experience of 17 premenstrual symptoms during the previous 12 months. In the same questionnaire twins also responded to questions on symptom states, and personality dimensions including neuroticism. Interview data enabling diagnosis of lifetime history of DSM-IV major depression were also available. We fitted univariate and multivariate genetic models to the data.
RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS
Most frequently reported symptoms were breast tenderness/pain and bloating/weight gain, followed by affective symptoms. Twelve-month prevalence was 24% for the combination of symptoms and functional interference meeting a very rough approximation of DSM-III-R criteria for late luteal dysphoric disorder. Principal factor analysis identified a single premenstrual (PMS) factor. Additive genetic influences (44% of total variance) were identified for PMS. Although we found genetic correlations of 0.62 between reported PMS and neuroticism, and 0 70 with lifetime major depression, 39 % of the genetic variance of PMS was not explained by these factors.
CONCLUSIONS NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS
Our findings support the existence of genetic influences on premenstrual symptoms, but we were unable to distinguish between liability to symptom experience and symptom reporting. Retrospective reporting may have contributed to our finding that PMS genes were shared in part with neuroticism and liability to lifetime major depression.
DATE PUBLISHED
2002 Jan
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2002/03/09 10:00
medline 2002/09/20 10:01
entrez 2002/03/09 10:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Treloar SA Treloar S A SA Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, University of Queensland, PO Royal Birsbane Hospital, Australia.
Heath AC Heath A C AC
Martin NG Martin N G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 32
ISSUE: 1
TITLE: Psychological medicine
ISOABBREVIATION: Psychol Med
YEAR: 2002
MONTH: Jan
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0033-2917
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Psychol Med
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0033-2917
NLMUNIQUEID: 1254142
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
AA07535 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA07728 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA11998 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Australia epidemiology
Cohort Studies epidemiology
Diseases in Twins genetics
Female genetics
Humans genetics
Middle Aged genetics
Personality Inventory genetics
Premenstrual Syndrome genetics
Social Environment genetics
Twins, Dizygotic psychology
Twins, Monozygotic psychology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's