Mapping genes for anxiety and depression

在神经质人格特征上得分高的人患重度抑郁症和其他神经性疾病的风险大大增加。神经质是一种人格特征，在成年期表现出相当大的稳定性。它有很强的遗传基础，似乎同样的基因也决定抑郁、焦虑和其他神经症的风险。通过选择双胞胎和姐妹极度不和谐和和谐（EDAC）的神经质，我们可以大大降低成本，增加发现影响抑郁症的基因的能力。对15027对澳大利亚双胞胎及其11389名家庭成员的问卷调查和访谈进行了回顾，以确定神经质得分在前10%和后10%的个体。这些人被邀请通过电话参加一个有组织的精神病学访谈，并提供血液样本。参与和DNA采样率很高，参与偏差最小。研究人员从884个家庭中收集了2926个人的DNA，其中包括1333对EDAC兄弟姐妹和795多对父母。对三分之一的样本进行初步的基因组扫描，发现了几个连锁峰，表明主要影响基因似乎重复了在荷兰和英国进行的类似研究的发现。鉴于这些结果，我们非常希望对选择的极端样本的剩余部分进行基因组扫描。另外三分之一的样本目前正在美国进行基因分型，在这里我们请求资金来对剩下的三分之一进行基因分型。如果我们成功地确定了神经质的潜在基因，我们也将能够分析它们对抑郁和焦虑的影响。这可能会导致更好的药物治疗。

High scorers on the personality trait neuroticism are at greatly increased risk of major depression and other neurotic disorders. Neuroticism is a personality trait that shows considerable stability over adulthood. It has a strong genetic basis and it seems that the same genes also determine risk of depression, anxiety and other neuroses. By selecting twins and sibs extremely discordant and concordant (EDAC) for neuroticism we can greatly reduce the cost and increase the power to find genes influencing depression. Questionnaire responses and interviews from 15,027 Australian twins and 11,389 of their family members were reviewed to identify individuals with neuroticism scores in the top and bottom 10%. These individuals were invited to participate in a structured psychiatric interview by telephone, and to give a blood sample. Participation and DNA sampling rates were high and there was minimal evident participation bias. DNA was collected from 2,926 individuals from 884 families including 1,333 EDAC sibling pairs and over 795 parents. A preliminary genome scan on one third of this sample yields several linkage peaks suggesting genes of major effect that appear to replicate findings in similar studies conducted in Holland and England. Given these results it is highly desirable that we obtain a genome scan on the remainder of selected extreme sample. Another one third of this sample is currently being genotyped in America and here we request funds to genotype the remaining third. .If we are successful in identifying genes underlying neuroticism, we will also be able to analyse their contribution to depression and anxiety. This could lead to better drug treatments.