Buchwald D

Unique environmental effects on physical activity participation: a twin study

Duncan GE, Goldberg J, Noonan C, Moudon AV, Hurvitz P, Buchwald D The health benefits of regular physical activity are well established. However, the relative contribution of heritable and environmental factors to physical activity participation remains controversial. Using a cut-point of 60 minutes of total activity per week, data from the GenomEUtwin project revealed consistent […]

Twin analyses of fatigue

Schur E, Afari N, Goldberg J, Buchwald D, Sullivan PF Prolonged fatigue of ≥1 month duration and chronic fatigue of ≥6 months duration are both commonly seen in clinical practice, yet little is known about the etiology or epidemiology of either symptom. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), while rarer, presents similar challenges in determining cause and […]

Feeling bad in more ways than one: comorbidity patterns of medically unexplained and psychiatric conditions

Schur E, Afari N, Furberg H, Olarte M, Goldberg J, Sullivan PF, Buchwald D Considerable overlap in symptoms and disease comorbidity has been noted among medically unexplained and psychiatric conditions seen in the primary care setting, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, low back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic tension headache, fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint disorder, major […]

University of Washington Twin Registry: construction and characteristics of a community-based twin registry

Afari N, Noonan C, Goldberg J, Edwards K, Gadepalli K, Osterman B, Evanoff C, Buchwald D The University of Washington Twin Registry is a community-based registry of twins identified from the Washington State Department of Licensing. A fortuitous quirk in the Washington State drivers’ license and identification number assignment, and collaborative Washington State laws, permitted […]

A twin study of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and chronic widespread pain

Arguelles LM, Afari N, Buchwald D, Clauw DJ, Furner S, Goldberg J Previous studies of the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic widespread pain (CWP) or fibromyalgia have not examined the role of familial or genetic factors. The goals of this study were to determine if symptoms of PTSD are related to CWP […]

Is the association between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and poor health due to a common familial or genetic factor?

Roy-Byrne P, Noonan C, Afari N, Buchwald D, Goldberg J The objective of this study was to identify genetic, familial and environmental contributions to the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and poor health. A community sample of 1852 twin pairs was assessed for symptoms of PTSD [with the Impact of Events Scale (IES)] and […]

Genetic pleiotropy between asthma and obesity in a community-based sample of twins

Hallstrand TS, Fischer ME, Wurfel MM, Afari N, Buchwald D, Goldberg J Asthma and obesity are common conditions that are strongly associated. This association might be due to shared genetic or environmental causes. We sought to determine whether a shared genetic cause is responsible for the association between asthma and obesity and to estimate the magnitude […]