Strachan E

Olatunji BO, Christian C, Strachan E, Levinson CA. Background Evidence suggests that depression and anxiety disorders are genetically based. Although symptoms of these internalizing disorders tend to correlate, the degree to which the related symptoms are heritable is unclear. This overlap has been conceptualized as Anxious Misery and existing research examining similar constructs of negative […]

Cox RC, Taylor S, Strachan E, Olatunji BO. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and insomnia are comorbid clinical conditions that are thought to result from genetic and environmental effects. Though studies have established the heritability of these disorders independently, no study to date has examined the genetic contributions to the relation between insomnia and PTSD symptoms […]

Zhu Y, Strachan E, Fowler E, Bacus T, Roy-Byrne P, Zhao J. 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 […]

Duncan GE, Avery AR, Strachan E, Turkheimer E, Tsang S. It has been over 5 years since the last special issue of Twin Research and Human Genetics on ‘Twin Registries Worldwide: An Important Resource for Scientific Research’ was published. Much progress has been made in the broad field of twin research since that time, and the current […]

Ramchandani MS, Jing L, Russell RM, Tran T, Laing KJ, Magaret AS, Selke S, Cheng A, Huang ML, Xie H, Strachan E, Greninger AL, Roychoudhury P, Jerome KR, Wald A, Koelle DM. BACKGROUND Orolabial herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection has wide severity spectrum in immunocompetent persons. To study the role of viral genotype […]

Strachan E, Zhao J, Roy-Byrne PP, Fowler E, Bacus T. 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 […]

Peng H, Zhu Y, Strachan E, Fowler E, Bacus T, Roy-Byrne P, Goldberg J, Vaccarino V, Zhao J. 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 […]

Strachan E, Duncan G, Horn E, Turkheimer E. 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 […]

Godfrey KM, Herbert M, Strachan E, Mostoufi S, Crofford LJ, Buchwald D, Poeschla B, Succop A, Afari N. Objectives Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation is associated with chronic pain. Studying pain sensitivity and the HPA axis could elucidate the role of stress in chronic pain development, which might be influenced by familial factors, including genes. Methods […]

Sinclair VG, Wallston KA, Strachan E. 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 […]

Kleinhans NM, Yang CC, Strachan ED, Buchwald DS, Maravilla KR Purpose Urological chronic pelvic pain syndromes have refractory bladder or pelvic pain as the dominant symptom. This has been attributed to changes in the central nervous system caused by a chronic barrage of noxious stimuli. We developed what is to our knowledge a novel challenge […]

Godfrey KM, Strachan E, Mostoufi S, Poeschla B, Succop A, Afari N The relationship between sleep quality and pain has been studied in populations with chronic pain and in nonclinical populations using experimental paradigms. Little is known about the familial contributions to this relationship. This study examines self-reported sleep quality and pain in a nonclinical […]

Horn EE, Turkheimer E, Strachan E, Duncan GE Body mass index (BMI) has a strong genetic basis, with a heritability around 0.75, but is also influenced by numerous behavioral and environmental factors. Aspects of the built environment (e.g., environmental walkability) are hypothesized to influence obesity by directly affecting BMI, by facilitating or inhibiting behaviors such […]

Trost Z, Strachan E, Sullivan M, Vervoort T, Avery AR, Afari N This study used a twin paradigm to examine genetic and environmental contributions to pain catastrophizing and the observed association between pain catastrophizing and cold-pressor task (CPT) outcomes. Male and female monozygotic (n = 206) and dizygotic twins (n = 194) from the University […]

Strachan E, Poeschla B, Dansie E, Succop A, Chopko L, Afari N Pain is a complex phenomenon influenced by context and person-specific factors. Affective dimensions of pain involve both enduring personality traits and fleeting emotional states. We examined how personality traits and emotional states are linked with clinical and evoked pain in a twin sample. 99 […]

Duncan GE, Mills B, Strachan E, Hurvitz P, Huang R, Moudon AV, Turkheimer E No causal evidence is available to translate associations between neighborhood characteristics and health outcomes into beneficial changes to built environments. Observed associations may be causal or result from uncontrolled confounds related to family upbringing. Twin designs can help neighborhood effects studies […]

Vitaliano P, Strachan E, Dansie E, Goldberg J, Buchwald D Informal caregiving can be deleterious to mental health, but research results are inconsistent and may reflect an interaction between caregiving and vulnerability to stress.We examined psychological distress among 1,228 female caregiving and non-caregiving twins. By examining monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs discordant for caregiving, we […]

Godfrey KM, Strachan E, Dansie E, Crofford LJ, Buchwald D, Goldberg J, Poeschla B, Succop A, Noonan C, Afari N There is a dearth of knowledge about the link between cortisol and pain sensitivity. We examined the association of salivary cortisol with indices of cold pain sensitivity in 198 female twins and explored the role of […]

Watson NF, Harden KP, Buchwald D, Vitiello MV, Pack AI, Strachan E, Goldberg J We used quantitative genetic models to assess whether sleep duration modifies genetic and environmental influences on depressive symptoms. 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 […]

Mostoufi S, Strachan E, Chopko L, Succop A, Martinez B, Ahumada S, Afari N To examine the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and health perception in adulthood, and to explore the contribution of shared familial factors to these associations. Data were collected from 180 female twins (90 pairs) from the community-based University of Washington […]