Anxiety and Depression
Study Code:AX
Sample:~1800 subjects
Start Date:Jan.1996
Status:Completed
Contact:Anjali Henders
More Info:QIMR only


The aim of the Anxiety project was to map the common gene or set of genes that underlies neuroticism, anxiety and depression. This was done by:

  1. conducting a diagnostic interview with twins and their siblings who have been selected on the basis of extreme neuroticism scores (EPQ: Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) obtained in previous questionnaire studies (AL1, AL2, AR1, AR2)
  2. obtaining a blood sample (3x10ml EDTA) from the twins, their siblings and parents, from which DNA will be extracted
  3. typing microsatellite markers and performing sib-pair linkage and association analyses to locate QTL's (quantitative trait loci) for neuroticism, anxiety and depression

The diagnostic interview was conducted by telephone. Each of the 5 interviewers was supplied with a PC which was used to run QIMRCIDI, a custom-written program which allowed the interviewer to directly enter the subject responses while the interview was in progress.