Twin Study--Suicidality & Self-Harm in White/Black Women

描述(摘自申请者的摘要)：这项研究考察了导致自杀和自残行为的遗传和环境危险因素，以及这些危险因素的相对强度的种族差异。本研究的目的是阐明个体水平的危险因素(包括基因、环境和人格特质)对自杀和自残行为的影响。自杀和故意自残构成了相当大的公共健康负担，但对这些行为的危险因素的研究有限。假设是，遗传的、共享的和非共享的环境对自我伤害和自杀企图的影响相似。这一假设将通过行为基因双胞胎研究设计进行验证。已经收集的数据来自一对双胞胎登记处，其中包括3500多名17岁至25岁的女性(在这一人群中，自残和自杀相对常见)。首先将确定这些行为在非裔美国人和白人年轻女性中的流行率是否不同。结构方程模型还将被用来1)确定基因、共享和非共享环境对自杀和自残行为的影响程度，以及这些比例是否因种族而异；2)确定共同和/或独特的风险因素是否有助于自杀和自残；以及3)测试神经质和冲动的人格特征是否解释了自杀和自残的一些遗传影响。 这项研究的几个方面是独一无二的：这将是第一次对自残的行为进行遗传分析，也是第一次研究不同种族自残的流行程度。自我伤害越来越普遍，但人们对此却知之甚少。此外，这项研究将首次探索自残和自杀行为之间的病因学相似性。如果相似的风险因素导致了这两种行为，预防计划可能很容易被设计成同时针对它们。风险因素对种族对自残和自杀的不同影响的分析也是新颖的。如果这些风险因素的相对影响因种族而异，预防工作可能最有效地针对不同种族群体的不同类别变量。最后，之前没有关于自杀的行为遗传学研究超越了估计遗传力来探索基因传播的机制。虽然基因不太可能成为预防计划的目标，但也有可能针对人格风格等中间表型。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): This study examines the genetic and environmental risk factors leading to suicidal and self-harm behaviors in a representative community sample of female adolescents and young adults, and racial differences in the relative strength of these risk factors. The study objective is to clarify the impact of individual-level risk factors (including genes, environment, and personality traits) on suicidal and self-harm behavior. Suicidality and deliberate self-harm pose a considerable public health burden, yet there is limited research on risk factors for these behaviors. The hypothesis is that genetic, shared, and nonshared environment affect both self-harm and suicide attempts similarly. The hypothesis will be tested by means of a behavior genetic twin study design. Data, which have already been collected, come from a twin registry including over 3500 17- to 25-year old females (a demographic in which self-harm and suicidality are relatively common). It will first be determined whether the prevalence of these behaviors differs between African American and White young women. Structural equation modeling will also be used to 1) determine the extent to which genes, shared, and nonshared environment contribute to suicidal and self-harm behavior and whether those proportions vary by race, 2) determine whether common and/or unique risk factors contribute to suicidality and self-harm, and 3) test whether the personality traits of neuroticism and impulsivity account for some of the genetic influence on suicidality and self-harm. Several aspects of this study are unique: It will be the first behavior genetic analysis of self-harm and the first study of the differential prevalence of self-harm by race. Self-harm is increasingly common yet little understood. Also, this study will be the first to explore etiological similarities between self-harm and suicidal behavior. If similar risk factors contribute to both behaviors, prevention programs might easily be designed to target them simultaneously. The analysis of the differential impact of risk factors on self-harm and suicidality by race is also novel. If the relative impact of these risk factors varies by race, prevention efforts might most effectively target different classes of variables for different racial groups. Finally, no prior behavior genetic studies of suicidality have gone beyond estimating heritability to exploring the mechanism of genetic transmission. While genes are an unlikely target for prevention programs, it may be possible to target intermediate phenotypes such as personality styles.