depression

Due to social distancing measures implemented to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals are spending more time isolated at home with limited physical social interactions. The current study investigated whether marriage and/or cohabitation is associated with satisfaction with life and depression among 732 adult same-sex twin pairs (monozygotic and dizygotic) in the US using online survey […]

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between lifestyle behaviours, emotional health factors, and low back pain (LBP) resilience. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study utilised 1,065 twins with a recent history of LBP from the Washington State Twin Registry. A lifestyle behaviour score was built using variables of body mass index, physical activity engagement, sleep quality, smoking […]

Background: Guidelines promoting healthy lifestyles are cornerstones of chronic disease prevention and treatment. The purpose of this study is to investigate independent and joint associations of five key health behaviors with health outcomes (body mass index (BMI kg/m2) and depressive symptoms) in adult twins. Methods: We included 6,048 twin pairs from a community-based registry. Five […]

Millions of people have been impacted by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic worldwide. High infection rates and death tolls, combined with social distancing measures, may have unintended psychological consequences on individuals. The goal of this study was to examine the interrelations between COVID-19 exposure, fear of COVID-19, and depression among a community-based sample of adult […]

DNA methylation plays an important role in major depressive disorder (MDD), but the specific genes and genomic regions associated with MDD remain largely unknown. Here we conducted genome-wide profiling of DNA methylation (Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip) and gene expression (RNA-seq) in peripheral blood monocytes from 79 monozygotic twin pairs (mean age 38.2 ± 15.6 years) discordant on lifetime […]

Major depression is a complex disorder with no single, direct causal mechanism. Morbidity has been linked to genetic processes, developmental history, and unique environmental exposures. Epigenetic mechanisms, especially DNA methylation, are also likely important factors in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). A community-based twin sample has many advantages for epigenetic studies, given the […]

Objective: DNA methylation has been associated with both early life stress and depression. This study examined the combined association of DNA methylation at multiple CpG probes in five stress-related genes with depressive symptoms and tested whether these genes methylation mediated the association between childhood trauma and depression in two monozygotic (MZ) twin studies. Methods: The current analysis […]

Social capital is associated with depression independently of individual-level risk factors. We used a sample of 1586 same-sex twin pairs to test the association between seven measures of social capital and two related measures of neighborhood characteristics with depressive symptoms accounting for uncontrolled selection factors (i.e., genetics and shared environment). All measures of cognitive social […]

Background: Depression is an important contributor to the global burden of disease. Besides several known individual-level factors that contribute to depression, there is a growing recognition that neighbourhood environment can also profoundly affect mental health. This study assessed associations between three neighbourhood constructs-socioeconomic deprivation, residential instability and income inequality-and depression among adult twin pairs. The twin […]

Objective: We used quantitative genetic methods to evaluate whether sleep quality, pain, and depression symptoms share a common genetic diathesis, to estimate the genetic and environmental sources of covariance among these symptoms, and to test for possible causal relationships. Methods: A community sample of 400 twins from the University of Washington Twin Registry completed standardized self-report questionnaires. […]

Background: Depression is a significant problem and it is vital to understand its underlying causes and related policy implications. Neighborhood characteristics are implicated in depression but the nature of this association is unclear. Unobserved or unmeasured factors may confound the relationship. This study addresses confounding in a twin study investigating neighborhood-level effects on depression controlling for […]

Marriage is associated with reductions in both perceived stress and depressive symptoms, two constructs found to be influenced by common genetic effects. A study of sibling twins was used to test whether marriage decreases the proportion of variance in depressive symptoms accounted for by genetic and environmental effects underlying perceived stress. The sample consisted of […]

Posttraumatic depression rates are increasing in the United States, and there is a great need to identify malleable factors that could moderate posttraumatic depression levels. The purpose of this study was to examine whether resilient coping moderates the effects of trauma exposure on depression, while controlling for neuroticism-an established predictor of depressive symptoms. This study […]

Increasing global urbanisation has resulted in a greater proportion of the world’s population becoming exposed to risk factors unique to urban areas, and understanding these effects on public health is essential. The aim of this study was to examine the association between access to green space and mental health among adult twin pairs. We used a […]

Background: Informal caregiving can be deleterious to mental health, but research results are inconsistent and may reflect an interaction between caregiving and vulnerability to stress. Methods: We examined psychological distress among 1,228 female caregiving and non-caregiving twins. By examining monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs discordant for caregiving, we assessed the extent to which distress is directly related […]

Objective: We used quantitative genetic models to assess whether sleep duration modifies genetic and environmental influences on depressive symptoms. Method: Participants were 1,788 adult twins from 894 same-sex twin pairs (192 male and 412 female monozygotic [MZ] pairs, and 81 male and 209 female dizygotic [DZ] pairs] from the University of Washington Twin Registry. Participants self-reported habitual […]

Objective: This study examined if associations between body mass index (BMI) and mental and physical health were independent of genetic and familial factors. Method: Data from 2831 twins (66% female) were used in an epidemiological co-twin control design with measures of BMI and mental and physical health outcomes. Generalized estimating equation regressions assessed relationships between BMI and […]

Background: Studies have found a modest association between depression and obesity, especially in women. Given the substantial genetic contribution to both depression and obesity, we sought to determine whether shared genetic influences are responsible for the association between these two conditions. Methods: Data were obtained from 712 monozygotic and 281 dizygotic female twin pairs who are members […]

Chronic pain and obesity, and their associated impairments, are major health concerns. We estimated the association of overweight and obesity with 5 distinct pain conditions and 3 pain symptoms, and examined whether familial influences explained these relationships. We used data collected from 3,471 twins in the community-based University of Washington Twin Registry. Twins reported sociodemographic data, […]

Objective: Interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS) is a chronic pain condition with unclear underlying etiology. Our objectives were to determine whether psychological distress was higher in twins with urological symptoms commonly found in IC/PBS than in twins without, and if so, did familial influences contribute to this association. Method: Data from 1165 female twins in a community-based […]