Genetic moderation of environmental risk for depression and anxiety in adolescent girls.
BACKGROUND
There is huge individual variation in people's response to negative life events.


OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that genetic factors moderate susceptibility to the environmentally mediated risks associated with negative life events.


METHODS
The Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development (VTSABD) was used to study the effects of independent life events (assessed from maternal interview) on depression/anxiety (assessed from child interview) in 184 same-gender female twin pairs, aged 14--7 years, measured on two occasions.


RESULTS
There was no genetic effect on the independent negative life events studied. A significant gene-environment interaction was found using structural equation modelling. There was no effect of independent life events on adolescents' depression in the absence of parental emotional disorder, but a significant effect in its presence.


CONCLUSIONS
There is an environmentally mediated effect of life events on depression/anxiety. Genetic factors play a significant role in individual differences in susceptibility to these environmentally mediated risks.
Silberg
J
J
Department of Human Genetics, Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0030, USA. jsilberg@hsc.vcu.edu
Rutter
M
M
Neale
M
M
Eaves
L
L
D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000235:genetics*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors