Genetic and environmental contributions to the co-occurrence of depressive personality disorder and DSM-IV personality disorders.
One of the main controversies with regard to depressive personality disorder (DPD) concerns the co-occurrence with the established DSM-IV personality disorders (PDs). The main aim of this study was to examine to what extent DPD and the DSM-IV PDs share genetic and environmental risk factors, using multivariate twin modeling. The DSM-IV Structured Interview for Personality was applied to 2,794 young adult twins. Paranoid PD from Cluster A, borderline PD from Cluster B, and all three PDs from Cluster C were independently and significantly associated with DPD in multiple regression analysis. The genetic correlations between DPD and the other PDs were strong (.53-.83), while the environmental correlations were moderate (.36-.40). Close to 50% of the total variance in DPD was disorder specific. However, only 5% was due to disorder-specific genetic factors, indicating that a substantial part of the genetic vulnerability to DPD also increases the vulnerability to other PDs.
Department of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway. ragnhild.orstavik@fhi.no
Ragnhild E
RE
Ørstavik
Kenneth S
KS
Kendler
Espen
E
Røysamb
Nikolai
N
Czajkowski
Kristian
K
Tambs
Ted
T
Reichborn-Kjennerud
D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires