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Published on: March 8, 2018
Strong genetic correlation between interview-assessed internalizing disorders and a brief self-report symptom scale
Line C Gjerde1, Espen Røysamb, Nikolai Czajkowski
1Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Division of Mental Health, Norway. linecgj@student.sv.uio.no
Summary
Brief self-report scales for anxiety and depression symptoms capture highly overlapping genetic liability with internalizing disorders. This suggests their utility in identifying genetic risk factors for these conditions.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Behavioral Genetics
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Self-report scales for anxiety and depression are widely used for screening and research.
- A moderate phenotypic association exists between diagnosed disorders and self-reported symptoms.
- The overlap in genetic and environmental variance between these measures is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the genetic and environmental overlap between self-report symptoms of anxiety and depression and diagnosed internalizing disorders.
- To utilize twin modeling to quantify shared liabilities.
Main Methods:
- Twin modeling was applied to a large sample of Norwegian twins (N=7,992).
- Data included self-report Symptom Checklist-5 (SCL-5) and Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) for lifetime internalizing disorders.
- A subset (N=2,793) underwent structured interviews.
Main Results:
- A strong genetic correlation (0.82) was found between self-report symptoms and lifetime internalizing disorders, indicating substantial shared genetic liability.
- The correlation between environmental factors was considerably lower (0.16).
Conclusions:
- Brief self-report instruments like the SCL-5 effectively capture genetic variance associated with internalizing disorders.
- These scales can serve as valuable tools for screening genetic risk factors for internalizing disorders.
- Existing self-report data can be confidently used in genetic models for internalizing disorders.
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