A twin-family study of self-report symptoms of panic-phobia and somatization |
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Authors: | Kenneth S Kendler Ellen E Walters Kim R Truett Andrew C Heath Michael C Neale Nicholas G Martin Lindon J Eaves |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia/Virgina Commonwealth University, Box 980710, 23298-0710 Richmond, Virginia;(2) Department of Human Genetics, Medial College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Box 980710, 23298-0710 Richmond, Virginia;(3) Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri;(4) Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia |
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Abstract: | Self-report symptoms of anxiety are widely used in mental health and social science research as an index of current psychiatric
state. Previous twin studies have suggested that genetic factors account for a significant proportion of the variance in these
symptoms. To replicate and extend these findings, we examined self-report symtoms of panic-phobia and somatization in the
“Virginia 30,000” twin-family sample. Model fitting applied to 80 unique relationships in the twin-family pedigree produced
the following major results: (i) genetic effects were significant for both symptom factors, accounting for between 25 and
49% of the total variance, with the exception of symptoms of panic-phobia in females, where they accounted for 15–16% of the
variance; (ii) familial environmental effects were absent for symptoms of somatization, while for symptoms of panic-phobia
they accounted for a very small proportion of variance in males (≤1.2%) and a modest proportion in females (6–17%) (iii) spousal
correlations were present for both factors, ranging from +0.05 to +0.20; (iv) genetic factors which influenced symptoms were
generally the same in males and females, although their effect was greater in males; (v) heritability estimates were lower
in the population-based than in the volunteer sample; and (vi) when test-retest reliability was included in the model, results
suggest that genetic factors account for at least half of the stable variance for all symptom factors, except panic-phobia
in females. Our results support the validity of previous twin studies of self-report symptoms of anxiety and suggest that
genetic factors significantly influence these symptoms but familial-environmental factors play little or no etiologic role. |
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Keywords: | Twins twin kinships cultural inheritance twin environment anxiety panic phobia |
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