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
8540889
TITLE
A twin-family study of self-report symptoms of panic-phobia and somatization.
ABSTRACT
Self-report symptoms of anxiety are widely used in mental health and social science research as an index of current psychiatric state. Previous twin studies have suggested that genetic factors account for a significant proportion of the variance in these symptoms. To replicate and extend these findings, we examined self-report symptoms of panic-phobia and somatization in the "Virginia 30,000" twin-family sample. Model fitting applied to 80 unique relationships in the twin-family pedigree produced the following major results: (i) genetic effects were significant for both symptom factors, accounting for between 25 and 49% of the total variance, with the exception of symptoms of panic-phobia in females, where they accounted for 15-16% of the variance; (ii) familial environmental effects were absent for symptoms of somatization, while for symptoms of panic-phobia they accounted for a very small proportion of variance in males (< or = 1.2%) and a modest proportion in females (6-17%); (iii) spousal correlations were present for both factors, ranging from +0.05 to +0.20; (iv) genetic factors which influenced symptoms were generally the same in males and females, although their effect was greater in males; (v) heritability estimates were lower in the population-based than in the volunteer sample; and (vi) when test-retest reliability was included in the model, results suggest that genetic factors account for at least half of the stable variance for all symptom factors, except panic-phobia in females. Our results support the validity of previous twin studies of self-report symptoms of anxiety and suggest that genetic factors significantly influence these symptoms but familial-environmental factors play little or no etiologic role.
DATE PUBLISHED
1995 Nov
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 1995/11/01
medline 1995/11/01 00:01
entrez 1995/11/01 00:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Kendler KS Kendler K S KS Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23298, USA.
Walters EE Walters E E EE
Truett KR Truett K R KR
Heath AC Heath A C AC
Neale MC Neale M C MC
Martin NG Martin N G NG
Eaves LJ Eaves L J LJ
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 25
ISSUE: 6
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav. Genet.
YEAR: 1995
MONTH: Nov
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-8244
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
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
AA06781 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA07535 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
MH40828 NIMH NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Diseases in Twins genetics
Female genetics
Humans genetics
Male genetics
Middle Aged genetics
Models, Genetic genetics
Panic Disorder psychology
Phobic Disorders psychology
Risk Factors psychology
Social Environment psychology
Somatoform Disorders psychology
Twins, Dizygotic psychology
Twins, Monozygotic psychology
Virginia psychology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's