This is an epidemiologic study of the risk factors for anxiety, depression and psychiatric distress. Psychiatric problems will be studied both at the symptom and at the diagnostic level. This study brings together two traditions of risk factor research which have previously been relatively independent of one another; psychosocial and genetic. Our goal is to clarify the inter-relationship between these two types of risk factors. To accomplish this goal, a novel research design is proposed in which the methods and measurements of psychiatric epidemiology are applied to a genetically informative population (female identical and fraternal twin pairs). Specifically, this application proposes a two-wave epidemiologic study of symptoms of anxiety and depression in 1100 adult caucasian female twin pairs from the Virginia population-based twin register. Symptoms of anxiety and depression, adverse personal and network life events, chronic role-related stress, and several postulated """"""""stress-buffering"""""""" variables (social support, self-esteem, learned resourcefulness, coping strategies, and neuroticism) will be assessed by mailed questionnaire in two waves one year apart. Psychiatric symptoms and disorders, family psychiatric history, the context of recent life events and specific coping strategies used for recent adversities will be assessed by structured personal interview in wave two. Results from this study will be analyzed by an innovative combination of sociometric and biometric techniques, which will permit conclusions regarding the main effects of genetic predisposition, adverse life events and stress-buffering variables on levels of psychiatric distress. Furthermore, this analysis will permit a detailed examination of the possible interaction and covariance of environmental and genetic determinants of levels of distress.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH040828-04
Application #
3379275
Study Section
(EPSA)
Project Start
1986-02-10
Project End
1990-01-31
Budget Start
1989-02-01
Budget End
1990-01-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
Richmond
State
VA
Country
United States
Zip Code
23298
Kendler, Kenneth S; Aggen, Steven H (2017) Symptoms of major depression: Their stability, familiality, and prediction by genetic, temperamental, and childhood environmental risk factors. Depress Anxiety 34:171-177
Kendler, K S; Gardner, C O (2016) Depressive vulnerability, stressful life events and episode onset of major depression: a longitudinal model. Psychol Med 46:1865-74
Schwabe, Inga; Jonker, Wilfried; van den Berg, Stéphanie M (2016) Genes, Culture and Conservatism-A Psychometric-Genetic Approach. Behav Genet 46:516-28
Hettema, J M; Aggen, S H; Kubarych, T S et al. (2015) Identification and validation of mixed anxiety-depression. Psychol Med 45:3075-84
Hatemi, Peter K; McDermott, Rose; Eaves, Lindon (2015) Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Relationships and Divorce Attitudes. Pers Individ Dif 72:135-140
Otowa, Takeshi; York, Timothy P; Gardner, Charles O et al. (2014) The impact of childhood parental loss on risk for mood, anxiety and substance use disorders in a population-based sample of male twins. Psychiatry Res 220:404-9
Kendler, K S; Aggen, S H (2014) Clarifying the causal relationship in women between childhood sexual abuse and lifetime major depression. Psychol Med 44:1213-21
van den Berg, Stéphanie M; de Moor, Marleen H M; McGue, Matt et al. (2014) Harmonization of Neuroticism and Extraversion phenotypes across inventories and cohorts in the Genetics of Personality Consortium: an application of Item Response Theory. Behav Genet 44:295-313
Kendler, K S; Halberstadt, L J (2013) The road not taken: life experiences in monozygotic twin pairs discordant for major depression. Mol Psychiatry 18:975-84
Hatemi, Peter K (2013) The Influence of Major Life Events on Economic Attitudes in a World of Gene-Environment Interplay. Am J Pol Sci 57:987-1007

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