Genetic and environmental contributions to depression symptomatology: Evidence from Danish twins 75 years of age and older
Genetic and environmental contributions to depression symptomatology: Evidence from Danish twins 75 years of age and older
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DOI：
10.1037/0021-843x.106.3.439
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发表时间：
1997-08-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Christensen, K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
McGue, M;Christensen, K
对406对75岁及以上的丹麦同性双胞胎样本进行了抑郁症状的遗传性调查。双胞胎完成了一项包括抑郁症状的面试评估，并在以下3个量表上进行了评分：躯体症状、情感症状和总分。总(h(2)=.34)、躯体(h(2)=.31)和影响(h(2)=.27)量表的遗传力估计(h(2))都是中等的，具有统计学意义。因为在样本的年龄范围内，没有一个量表h(2)有显著差异，尽管观察到的双胞胎相关性在男性中比女性小得多，但遗传度方面的性别差异没有统计学意义。多变量分析表明，情感和躯体分量表上的所有可遗传效应都可以归因于一个单一的遗传因素。因此，老年人的抑郁症状可能比以前的研究显示的更容易遗传，尽管没有共同的环境因素显然是造成这种差异的主要原因。这些发现的含义，以了解老年抑郁症症状的性质进行了讨论。
The heritability symptoms of depression were investigated in a sample of 406 same-sex Danish twin pairs 75 years of age and older. Twins completed an interview assessment that included symptoms of depression, which were scored on the following 3 scales: Somatic, Affect, and Total. Heritability estimates (h(2)) for the Total (h(2) =.34), Somatic (h(2) =.31), and Affect (h(2) =.27) scales were all moderate and statistically significant. For not one of the scales did h(2) vary significantly over the age range sampled, and although the observed twin correlations were substantially smaller among men as compared with women, none of the sex differences in heritability were statistically significant. Multivariate analyses indicated that all of the heritable effects on the Affect and Somatic subscales could be attributed to a single genetic factor. Depression symptoms in older adults may thus be more heritable than indicated in previous studies, although nonshared environmental factors clearly account for a majority of the variance. The implications of these findings for understanding the nature of late-life depression symptomatology are discussed.