Genetics and psychiatry: an unheralded window on the environment

Article Abstract:

A review of behavioral genetic data supporting the influence of environmental factors on normal and pathological development is presented, which challenges the recent trend towards viewing molecular biological evidence as the major criterion for psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Recent research points to the conclusion that both psychosocial and molecular biological factors contribute to the etiology of major psychiatric disorders. Genetic data and twin studies suggest that important environmental variables are those which differ between siblings living in the same family environment. While genetic factors certainly exist in depressive disorders and schizophrenia, genetics alone cannot account for all the variations in illness and resiliency between siblings. Parents can treat siblings differently, and siblings can have very different experiences with peers, school, marital relations and occupation. Recent evidence suggests the importance of 'nonshared social environments.'' Preliminary evidence indicates that siblings often have very dissimilar perceptions of their relationship with each other and may be treated differently by parents because of genetics-related features of their responsiveness to parents and the environment. It is concluded that effects of nonshared environments begin early in life and are related to differences in parental treatment, parental marital relationships, and sibling relationships. In sum, while molecular biology offers abundant information about specific gene and enzyme defects, behavioral genetics cannot be ignored, since the study of human relations offers equally important information in regard to the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorder. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Evaluation, Environmental aspects, Psychiatric research, Genetics, Psychology

---

Using MZ differences in the search for nonshared environmental effects

Article Abstract:

A study on nonshared environmental effects on the development of individual differences shows that the differences of parental negativity within identical (MZ) pairs correlate with MZ differences in antisocial behavior. Parents report few differences in the treatment of the twins, while adolescent reports and videotape ratings indicate more differences. Although within-reported associations are moderately correlated, between-reporter associations are hardly correlated. This implies the existence of a moderate overlap between nonshared environment and nonshared outcome in adolescence.

Research, Twins, Individual differences, Individual differences (Psychology)

---

Dimensions and disorders of adolescent adjustment: a quantitative genetic analysis of unselected samples and selected extremes

Article Abstract:

Genetic research has two analytical perspectives: dimensional (for unselected samples) and diagnostic (for disorders/selected extremes). Both were used to estimate the hereditary and environmental influences on the behavioral problems of a three-year longitudinal sample of adolescent twins (monozygotic and dizygotic) and sibling-pairs (full, half and unrelated) living with their intact or step-families. A framework that quantifies the etiologies of disorders was proposed for a further study.

Genetic aspects, Adjustment (Psychology) in adolescence, Adolescent adjustment (Psychology)

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Binge eating and other psychopathology in patients with type II diabetes mellitus. Subtypes of binge eating disorder based on psychiatric history
• Abstracts: The impact of postnatal depression on boys' intellectual development. Intellectual problems shown by 11-year-old children whose mothers had postnatal depression
• Abstracts: Cost offset from a psychiatric consultation-liaison intervention with elderly hip fracture patients. Effect of a psychiatric liaison program on consultation rates and on detection of minor psychiatric disorders in cancer patients
• Abstracts: Developmental history and object relations in psychiatrically disturbed adolescent girls. The borderline diagnosis in adolescents: symptoms and developmental history
• Abstracts: Cognitive specificity and positive-negative affectivity: complementary or contradictory views on anxiety and depression?

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.