Exploring etiological factors underlying anxiety and its associations with physical health and health-related quality of life.

这个项目的第一部分涉及在双胞胎样本中调查焦虑症状的遗传和环境结构(双胞胎研究)。我们还探讨了焦虑症状与一系列心脏自主神经指标之间的关系：心跳间期、心率变异性和压力反射敏感性。该项目增加了对焦虑症和心血管健康之间关系的行为遗传学研究。我们的目标是回到这两个数据集，进一步探索焦虑症状和潜在的其他内化症状(例如神经质、人际敏感)之间的联系，以及它与炎症或代谢标志等身体健康标志的关系。我们的第二个关键目标是在非西方人口中进行双胞胎分析(斯里兰卡CoTASS研究)。研究西方(高收入国家)和非西方双胞胎样本(低收入和中等收入国家，LMIC)中的焦虑，将使我们能够调查它是否可以通过文化/环境因素表现出来，从而使该项目从全球健康的角度进行研究。我们的目标是在这个样本中进行焦虑症状和健康相关生活质量之间的双变量双变量分析，调查这两个领域之间的表型、遗传和环境相关性。这项研究的第三个主要部分涉及调查焦虑的表观遗传性质。由于焦虑症通常与自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)共病，我们将使用正在进行的ASD双胞胎数据集(社会关系研究；SRS)来比较表观遗传学特征与对照参与者。我的目标是研究全球DNA甲基化，这是一个新的研究领域，特别是在焦虑病理学的背景下。根据样本和数据的可用性，我们还计划使用不同的样本(GREAD研究)，特别关注那些被诊断为焦虑/抑郁的人，潜在地进行进一步的基因组和表观基因组分析。

The first part of this project involves investigating the genetic and environmental architecture of anxiety symptoms in a twin sample (TWINS Study). We also explore associations between anxiety symptoms with a range of cardiac autonomic measures: inter-beat interval, heart rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity. This project adds to much needed behaviour genetics research on the relationships between anxiety and cardiovascular health. We aim to return to this twin dataset to further explore the associations between anxiety symptoms and potentially other internalizing symptoms (e.g. neuroticism, inter-personal sensitivity) and how it relates to physical health markers such as inflammation or metabolic markers. Our second key aim is to conduct twin analyses in a non-western population (CoTASS study, Sri-Lanka). Examining anxiety in both a western (high income countries, HIC) and non-western twin sample (low and middle-income countries, LMIC), will allow us to investigate whether it can manifest via cultural/environmental factors, giving this project a global-health angle. We aim to conduct bivariate twin analyses between anxiety symptoms and health-related quality of life in this sample, investigating phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlationships between the two domains. The third main component of the study involves investigating the epigenetic nature of anxiety. As anxiety disorders are commonly co-morbid with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), we will be using an ongoing ASD twin dataset (Social Relationships Study; SRS) to compare epigenetic profiles with control participants. My aim is to investigate global DNA methylation, a novel research area especially in the context of anxiety pathology. Depending on sample and data availability, we also plan to make use of a different sample (GLAD study), specifically focusing on those with an anxiety/depression diagnosis, potentially for further genomic and epigenomic analyses.