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Journal ArticleDOI

A twin study of depressive symptoms in childhood.

Anita Thapar, +1 more
- 01 Aug 1994 - 
- Vol. 165, Iss: 2, pp 259-265
TLDR
The results suggest that although depressive symptoms appear to be largely heritable, the influence of genetic and environmental factors may vary with age.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although depression in childhood appears to be familial, transmission of symptoms could be genetic or environmental. Twin studies enable us to separate these effects. Our aim was to assess the importance of genetic and environmental factors on depressive symptoms during childhood and adolescence in an epidemiological sample of twins. METHOD: Questionnaires (including the Mood and Feelings questionnaire) were mailed to a systematically ascertained sample (411 twin pairs) aged between 8 and 16 years. The overall response rate was 77%. RESULTS: Data for the whole sample were best explained by an additive genetic model, with heritability of depressive symptom scores estimated at 79%. However, on splitting the sample, symptoms in children (aged 8 to 11) could be explained by shared environmental factors only, while symptoms in adolescents (aged 11 to 16) remained highly heritable. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that although depressive symptoms appear to be largely heritable, the influence of genetic and environmental factors may vary with age.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Depression in adolescence

TL;DR: Unipolar depressive disorder in adolescence is common worldwide but often unrecognised, and the incidence, notably in girls, rises sharply after puberty and, by the end of adolescence, the 1 year prevalence rate exceeds 4%.
Journal ArticleDOI

Continuities and discontinuities in psychopathology between childhood and adult life.

TL;DR: The key research challenges that remain concern the testing of competing hypotheses on mediating processes, the changes involved in adolescence, the transition from prodromal phase to overt schizophrenia and the emergence of adolescent-limited antisocial behaviour.
Journal ArticleDOI

Genomewide association studies: history, rationale, and prospects for psychiatric disorders.

Sven Cichon, +123 more
TL;DR: GWAS methods have detected a remarkable number of robust genetic associations for dozens of common diseases and traits, leading to new pathophysiological hypotheses, although only small proportions of genetic variance have been explained thus far and therapeutic applications will require substantial further effort.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Influence of Genetic Factors and Life Stress on Depression Among Adolescent Girls

TL;DR: The greater heritability for depression in pubertal girls, its genetic mediation over time, and the increase in genetic variance for life events may be one possible explanation for the emergence of increased depression among puberal girls and its persistence through adolescence.
References
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Book

Methodology for Genetic Studies of Twins and Families

TL;DR: The LISREL Script for Rater Bias Model and Data for Simplex Model as mentioned in this paper is one of the most well-known models in the literature for gene expression analysis.
Journal ArticleDOI

Adult outcomes of childhood and adolescent depression. I. Psychiatric status

TL;DR: There is substantial specificity in the continuity of affective disturbances between childhood and adult life, and the depressed group was at an increased risk for affective disorder in adult life and had elevated risks of psychiatric hospitalization and psychiatric treatment.
Journal ArticleDOI

Depressive Disorders in Childhood: I. A Longitudinal Prospective Study of Characteristics and Recovery

TL;DR: The characteristics and diagnostic validity of major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and adjustment disorder with depressed mood were examined in a school-aged cohort and early age at onset predicted a more protracted illness.
Journal ArticleDOI

Epidemiology of Childhood Depressive Disorders: A Critical Review

TL;DR: It is likely that major depressive disorder is relatively uncommon in prepubertal children, increases in frequency in adolescents, and is significantly associated with such variables as family dysfunction and low self-esteem.
Journal ArticleDOI

The diagnosis of twin zygosity.

Nichols Rc, +1 more
- 01 Jan 1966 - 
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