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Gene-Environment Interactions Between Depressive Symptoms and Smoking Quantity.
Kaisu Keskitalo-Vuokko1, Tellervo Korhonen1, Jaakko Kaprio1
1Department of Public Health,University of Helsinki,Helsinki,Finland.
Summary
Shared genetic and environmental factors influence both smoking quantity and depressive symptoms. Gene-environment interactions show that genetic predispositions for smoking increase with depression severity, and vice versa.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Genetics
- Psychiatric Epidemiology
- Addiction Research
Background:
- Depression and smoking are significant public health concerns.
- The interplay between genetic and environmental factors in their co-occurrence is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate genetic and environmental correlations between depressive symptoms and smoking quantity.
- To examine gene-environment interactions (GxE) in the relationship between depression and smoking.
Main Methods:
- Utilized quantitative genetic modeling on a large twin cohort (n=12,063).
- Employed bivariate Cholesky decomposition and GxE models with moderator effects.
- Assessed depressive symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and smoking quantity by cigarettes per day (CPD).
Main Results:
- Phenotypic correlation between BDI and CPD (r=0.09) was explained by shared genetic (rg=0.18) and environmental (re=0.08) factors.
- Gene-environment interaction was significant: genetic influences on smoking increased with higher depression scores, and genetic influences on depression increased with higher smoking quantity.
- The importance of genetic variance components was amplified by the moderator trait value in both directions.
Conclusions:
- Shared genetic and environmental factors contribute to the association between smoking and depression.
- Gene-environment interactions play a crucial role, indicating a bidirectional potentiation of genetic effects based on the severity of the other trait.
- Findings highlight the complex genetic architecture underlying the comorbidity of depression and smoking.
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