Netherlands Twin Register: From Twins to Twin Families

Abstract

In the late 1980s The Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) was established by recruiting young twins and multiples at birth and by approaching adolescent and young adult twins through city councils. The Adult NTR (ANTR) includes twins, their parents, siblings, spouses and their adult offspring. The number of participants in the ANTR who take part in survey and / or laboratory studies is over 22,000 subjects. A special group of participants consists of sisters who are mothers of twins. In the Young NTR (YNTR), data on more than 50,000 young twins have been collected. Currently we are extending the YNTR by including siblings of twins. Participants in YNTR and ANTR have been phenotyped every 2 to 3 years in longitudinal survey studies, since 1986 and 1991 for the YNTR and ANTR, respectively. The resulting large population-based datasets are used for genetic epidemiological studies and also, for example, to advance phenotyping through the development of new syndrome scales based on existing items from other inventories. New research developments further include brain imaging studies in selected and unselected groups, clinical assessment of psychopathology through interviews, and cross-referencing the NTR database to other national databases. A large biobank enterprise is ongoing in the ANTR in which blood and urine samples are collected for genotyping, expression analysis, and meta-bolomics studies. In this paper we give an update on the YNTR and ANTR phenotyping and on the ongoing ANTR biobank studies.

GE Covariance Through Phenotype to Environment Transmission: An Assessment in Longitudinal Twin Data and Application to Childhood Anxiety

“…The data were collected by the Netherlands Twin Register (NT), which includes the Young NTR (YNTR; van Beijsterveldt et al 2003; Boomsma et al 2002, 2006) that has recruited newborn twins and multiples at birth since 1987. The parents and teachers of the twins rate anxious depression in the children by age appropriate questionnaires from the Achenbach system of empirical assessment (ASEBA): the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1.5-5; Achenbach 1990, 1992a, b) and CBCL/4-18 (Verhulst et al 1996).…”

The covariation of trait anger and borderline personality: A bivariate twin-siblings study.

“…Data from twins and their siblings were available from the Netheriands Twin Register (NTR; Boomsma et al, 2006) and the East Flanders Prospective Twin Survey (EFPTS; Derom et al, 2006) to disentangle genetic and environmental infiuences on the covarianee between borderline personality and trait anger.…”

Influence of Candidate Genes on Attention Problems in Children: A Longitudinal Study

“…The twins were registered with the Netherlands Twin Registry (NTR) shortly after birth by their parents (Bartels et al 2007; Boomsma et al 2006). During the first 12 years of their lives the parents received surveys with items on behavioral and emotional development about every 2 years.…”

“…Random subsamples of the young twins were also invited to participate in experimental and laboratory studies (for example, the studies of genetics of cognition, attention and brain function) and provide a DNA sample (Boomsma et al 2006). Genotyping data were obtained for 1,148 children from 593 families and included 569 boys and 579 girls who also had at least one AP score.…”