Depression spectrum disease, I: The role of gene-environment interaction

Remi J Cadoret; George Winokur; Douglas Langbehn; Edward Troughton; William R Yates; Mark A Stewart

doi:10.1176/ajp.153.7.892

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Depression spectrum disease, I: The role of gene-environment interaction

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Depression spectrum disease, I: The role of gene-environment interaction

Remi J Cadoret, George Winokur, Douglas Langbehn, Edward Troughton, William R Yates and Mark A Stewart

The American journal of psychiatry, Vol.153(7), pp.892-899

07/1996

DOI: 10.1176/ajp.153.7.892

PMID: 8659611

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Abstract

This study used an adoption study design to separate genetic from environmental factors in the etiology of depression spectrum disease, a type of major depression characterized by families in which male relatives are alcoholic and females are depressed. The genetic etiology hypothesis of depression spectrum disease proposes that an alcoholic genetic diathesis predisposes to depression in females but alcoholism, not depression, in males. The study examined 197 adult offspring (95 male and 102 female) of alcoholic biological parents and used logistic regression models to determine the contribution to major depression in male and female adoptees that could be explained by the genetic alcoholic diathesis combined with an environmental factor that was characterized by psychiatrically or behaviorally disturbed adoptive parents. Major depression in females was predicted by an alcoholic diathesis only when combined with the disturbed adoptive parent variable. The same regression model failed to predict depression in males. Other possible environmental confounding factors contributing to an increased chance of depression were found in females: fetal alcohol exposure, age at the time of adoption, and a family with an adopted sibling who had a psychiatric problem. These variables did not diminish the significance of the prediction of depression with the alcohol genetic diathesis and disturbed parent model. The results show that a genetic factor is present for which alcoholism is at least a marker, and which exerts its effect in women as a gene-environment interaction leading to major depression. This finding suggests that an important etiologic factor in depression spectrum disease is gene-environment interaction.

Adoption

Probability

Genetic Markers

Family

Humans

Middle Aged

Male

Social Environment

Depressive Disorder - etiology

Antisocial Personality Disorder - etiology

Antisocial Personality Disorder - genetics

Adult

Female

Antisocial Personality Disorder - epidemiology

Depressive Disorder - epidemiology

Depressive Disorder - genetics

Genetic Predisposition to Disease

Mental Disorders - epidemiology

Child of Impaired Parents

Logistic Models

Alcoholism - epidemiology

Alcoholism - etiology

Adolescent

Sex Factors

Alcoholism - genetics

Details

Title: Subtitle: Depression spectrum disease, I: The role of gene-environment interaction
Creators: Remi J Cadoret - Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242, USA
George Winokur
Douglas Langbehn
Edward Troughton
William R Yates
Mark A Stewart
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: The American journal of psychiatry, Vol.153(7), pp.892-899
DOI: 10.1176/ajp.153.7.892
PMID: 8659611
NLM abbreviation: Am J Psychiatry
ISSN: 0002-953X
eISSN: 1535-7228
Publisher: United States
Grant note: DA-05821 / NIDA NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 07/1996
Academic Unit: Psychiatry; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
Record Identifier: 9984003427702771

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