| 1. |
- Hicks, B. M., et al.
(författare)
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Gender differences and developmental change in externalizing disorders from late adolescence to early adulthood : A longitudinal twin study
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Abnormal Psychology. - Washington : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0021-843X .- 1939-1846. ; 116:3, s. 433-447
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using data from over 1,000 male and female twins participating in the Minnesota Twin Family Study, the authors examined developmental change, gender differences, and genetic and environmental contributions to the symptom levels of four externalizing disorders (adult antisocial behavior, alcohol dependence, nicotine dependence, and drug dependence) from ages 17 to 24. Both men and women increased in symptoms for each externalizing disorder, with men increasing at a greater rate than women, such that a modest gender gap at age 17 widened to a large one at age 24. Additionally, a mean-level gender difference on a latent Externalizing factor could account for the mean-level gender differences for the individual disorders. Biometric analyses revealed increasing genetic variation and heritability for men but a trend toward decreasing genetic variation and increasing environmental effects for women. Results illustrate the importance of gender and developmental context for symptom expression and the utility of structural models to integrate general trends and disorder-specific characteristics.
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| 2. |
- Venables, N. C., et al.
(författare)
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Evidence of a prominent genetic basis for associations between psychoneurometric traits and common mental disorders
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Journal of Psychophysiology. - Amsterdam : Elsevier. - 0167-8760 .- 1872-7697. ; 115, s. 4-12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Threat sensitivity (THT) and weak inhibitory control (or disinhibition; DIS) are trait constructs that relate to multiple types of psychopathology and can be assessed psychoneurometrically (i.e., using self-report and physiological indicators combined). However, to establish that psychoneurometric assessments of THT and DIS index biologically-based liabilities, it is important to clarify the etiologic bases of these variables and their associations with clinical problems. The current work addressed this important issue using data from a sample of identical and fraternal adult twins (N = 454). THT was quantified using a scale measure and three physiological indicators of emotional reactivity to visual aversive stimuli. DIS was operationalized using scores on two scale measures combined with two brain indicators from cognitive processing tasks. THT and DIS operationalized in these ways both showed appreciable heritability (0.45, 0.68), and genetic variance in these traits accounted for most of their phenotypic associations with fear, distress, and substance use disorder symptoms. Our findings suggest that, as indices of basic dispositional liabilities for multiple forms of psychopathology with direct links to neurophysiology, psychoneurometric assessments of THT and DIS represent novel and important targets for biologically-oriented research on psychopathology.
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| 3. |
- Venables, N. C., et al.
(författare)
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Psychoneurometric assessment of dispositional liabilities for suicidal behavior : Phenotypic and etiological associations
- 2018
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Ingår i: Psychological Medicine. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. - 0033-2917 .- 1469-8978. ; 48:3, s. 463-472
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Can core genetic liabilities for suicidal behavior be indexed using psychological and neural indicators combined? The current work addressed this question by examining phenotypic and genetic associations of two biobehavioral traits, threat sensitivity (THT) and disinhibition (DIS) - operationalized as psychoneurometric variables (i.e., composites of psychological-scale and neurophysiological measures) - with suicidal behaviors in a sample of adult twins.Methods: Participants were 444 identical and fraternal twins recruited from an urban community. THT was assessed using a psychological-scale measure of fear/fearlessness combined with physiological indicators of reactivity to aversive pictures, and DIS was assessed using scale measures of disinhibitory tendencies combined with indicators of brain response from lab performance tasks. Suicidality was assessed using items from structured interview and questionnaire protocols.Results: THT and DIS each contributed uniquely to prediction of suicidality when assessed psychoneurometrically (i.e., as composites of scale and neurophysiological indicators). In addition, these traits predicted suicidality interactively, with participants high on both reporting the greatest degree of suicidal behaviors. Biometric (twin-modeling) analyses revealed that a high percentage of the predictive association for each psychoneurometric trait (83% for THT, 68% for DIS) was attributable to genetic variance in common with suicidality.Conclusions: Findings indicate that psychoneurometric assessments of biobehavioral traits index genetic liability for suicidal behavior, and as such, can serve as innovative targets for research on core biological processes contributing to severe psychopathology, including suicidal proclivities and actions.
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