title: Differential Effects of Estrogen and Progesterone on Genetic and Environmental Risk for Emotional Eating in Women.
abstract: Recent data show shifts in genetic and environmental influences on emotional eating across the menstrual cycle, with significant shared environmental influences during pre-ovulation, and primarily genetic effects during post-ovulation. Factors driving differential effects are unknown, although increased estradiol during pre-ovulation and increased progesterone during post-ovulation are thought to play a role. We indirectly investigated this possibility by examining whether overall levels of estradiol and progesterone differentially impact genetic and environmental risk for emotional eating in adult female twins (N = 571) drawn from the MSU Twin Registry. Emotional eating, estradiol levels, and progesterone levels were assessed daily and then averaged to create aggregate measures for analysis. As predicted, shared environmental influences were significantly greater in twins with high estradiol levels, whereas additive genetic effects increased substantially across low versus high progesterone groups. Results highlight significant and differential effects of ovarian hormones on etiologic risk for emotional eating in adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Klump
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Britny A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Keel
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry, Human Genetics, and Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neale
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA; Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Cheryl L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Sisk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Richmond, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
authors.forename: S Alexandra
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Burt
keywords: Emotional eating; environmental; estrogen; genetic; menstrual cycle; progesterone