Genetic Moderators of Divorce Adjustment: A Pilot Investigation

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究旨在探讨离婚对常见生活压力源的心理和生理调节的潜在基因调节因子。尽管大多数人在面对离婚时都能恢复过来，但一小部分成年人却陷入了通往适应不良结果的道路上，这使得离婚、情绪障碍和身体健康之间的联系成为一个重大的公共卫生问题。该项目的主要目标是收集最近经历过婚姻分离的190名成年人（156名高加索/欧洲裔美国人）的脱氧核糖核酸（DNA），以便：(1)研究四种血清素基因的候选多态性，这些基因可能与婚姻分离的社会心理背景相互作用，以缓和9个月期间情绪症状的变化；(2)研究基因在炎症系统中可能减缓血液变化的作用压力（BP）对离婚特定实验室挑战范例的反应性。通过研究离婚调整的潜在基因调节因子，这项工作可以为婚姻结束后谁过得好或不好提供新的见解。遗传流行病学和分子精神病学领域的共识是，基因型对心理和生物学终点的影响研究可以通过改进社会心理环境的测量来大大加强。因此，通过仔细测量成年人对分离的心理反应和报告的压力程度，这项工作有可能增强基因-环境（gxe）相互作用对心理和健康相关表型的已知影响。这项拟议的研究是第一个关于gxe相互作用如何限制或促进情绪和生物恢复的前瞻性研究之一。使用计划失踪者设计（旨在减少参与者流失），成年人将在9个月的时间内进行四次研究。这种抽样方法的模拟研究表明，所提出的研究将足以检测小的G X E相互作用对情绪症状和BP反应性变化的影响。结合对血清素和炎症系统基因的研究，对离婚的心理社会背景的详细评估，以及前瞻性抽样和数据分析，将使拟议的研究在现有文献中独一无二，并在一个尚未充分研究的公共卫生意义领域具有高科学产出的潜力。这项研究将有助于在情绪障碍的gx E研究中确定精确的效应大小估计，以及结合基因，心理变量和感兴趣的生物反应模式的心身医学新出现的研究。有很多理由相信，情绪和炎症系统中的基因相互作用，产生了增加的抑郁和升高的血压反应，而拟议的调查有希望对这一不断发展的研究领域做出及时和重要的贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research investigates the potential genetic moderators of psychological and physical adjustment to the common life stressor of divorce. Although most people are resilient in the face of divorce, a subset of adults becomes stuck on pathways toward maladaptive outcomes, making the association between divorce, mood disturbances, and physical health a significant public health concern. The primary goal of this project is to collect deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from 190 adults (156 of Caucasian/European American descent) who have experienced a recent marital separation in order to (1) investigate candidate polymorphisms in four serotonin genes that may interact with the psychosocial context of marital separation to moderate changes in mood symptoms over a 9-month period and (2) investigate the role of genes within the inflammation system that may moderate changes in blood pressure (BP) reactivity to a divorce-specific laboratory challenge paradigm. By studying the potential genetic moderators of divorce adjustment, this work can provide new insights into who fares well or poorly following the end of marriage. There is consensus in the fields of genetic epidemiology and molecular psychiatry that the study of genotypic effects on psychological and biological end- points of interest can be greatly enhanced through improved measurement of the psychosocial environment. Thus, by carefully measuring adults' psychological responses to their separation and degree of reported stress, this work has the potential to enhance what is known about the effects of gene-environment (G X E) interactions on psychological and health-related phenotypes of interest. The proposed research is one the first prospective investigations of how G X E interactions may limit or promote emotional and biological recovery over time. Using a planned missingness design (intended to decrease participant attrition), adults will be studied at four occasions over a 9-month period. Simulation studies of this sampling approach reveal that the proposed study will be adequately powered to detect small G X E interaction effects on changes in mood symptoms and BP reactivity. In combination, the study of genes in both the serotonin and inflammation systems, the detailed assessment of the psychosocial context of divorce, and the prospective sampling and data analyses will make the proposed study unique to the existing literature and one with potential for high scientific yield in an understudied area of public health significance. This research will contribute to the growing effort to identify the precise effect size estimates in G X E studies of mood disturbances, as well as newly emerging research in psychosomatic medicine that combines genes, psychological variables, and biological response patterns of interest. There are many reasons to believe that genes in the emotion and inflammation systems interact to produce both increased depression and heightened BP responses, and the proposed investigation has promise to make timely and important contributions to this growing area of research. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Divorce is among the most stressful life events a person can experience, and a significant proportion of adults develop diagnosable mental and physical health problems following the end of marriage. By collecting deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from 190 recently separated adults, this project seeks to determine if some people are at unique risk for poor outcomes in the wake of this stressful experience. A better understanding of the associations between the psychological stress of divorce, genetic risk, and health is critical for developing improved prevention and treatment programs.