Strong Genetic Correlation Between Interview-Assessed Internalizing Disorders and a Brief Self-Report Symptom Scale

Abstract

Self-report scales for symptoms of anxiety and depression are frequently used for screening and research purposes. A moderate phenotypic association between disorders measured by diagnostic interviews and symptoms of anxiety and depression measured by self-report scales has been shown, but little is known about the overlap in these phenotypes' genetic and environmental variance. In the present study, we used twin modeling to identify common genetic and environmental liabilities underlying the phenotypic association between the self-report Symptom Checklist-5 (SCL-5) and lifetime internalizing disorders derived from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The sample consisted of 7,992 young adult twins from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Twin Panel (NIPHT), who all responded to a questionnaire. A subset of 2,793 individuals later underwent structured interviews. The best fitting model showed a strong genetic correlation of 0.82 (95% confidence interval; 0.61–1.0) between current self-report symptoms of anxiety and depression, and lifetime internalizing disorders, which suggests an almost complete overlap in genetic liability. The correlation between environmental factors was much lower: 0.16 (0.00–0.34, 95% CI). This implies that brief self-report scales capture genetic variance that is highly overlapping with the genetic variance common to internalizing disorder diagnoses. It thus follows that SCL-5 and similar instruments may be used as screening instruments for genetic risk factors that influence liability to internalizing disorders. In addition, existing data on self-report symptoms of anxiety and depression can be used with increased confidence to specify models including effects from genes coding for internalizing disorders.

The Genetic Correlation Between Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Among Chinese Adult Male Twins: An Ordinal Bivariate Genetic Analysis

“…To our knowledge, this was the first study that reported the genetic correlations between current smoking and current drinking in China. These measures were categorically defined, so the bivariate threshold genetic model was used (Gjerde et al, 2011). Undoubtedly, cigarette smoking was obviously influenced by genetic factors and not significantly by shared environmental effects, which was consistent with that reported in adult twins of Western origin Madden et al, 2004;True et al, 1997).…”

Genetic and Environmental Contributions to the Relationship Between Internalizing Disorders and Sick Leave Granted for Mental and Somatic Disorders

“…Second, there could be health differences between twins and singletons. However, other twin samples have been found to be representative for the general population regarding several health, lifestyle, and personality measures (Andrew et al, 2001;Johnson et al, 2002), and the prevalence of mental disorders is approximately the same in our sample as other population-based studies (Gjerde et al, 2011;Kessler et al, 2005a). Third, the diagnostic interviews were conducted early in the follow-up period and could thus to some degree reflect consequences of sick leave.…”

“…Genetic risk factors are primarily shared for internalizing disorders and psychological distress (Gjerde et al, 2011). There is also a familial aggregation of sick leave.…”

Maternal perinatal and concurrent depressive symptoms and child behavior problems: a sibling comparison study

“…The participants were asked to what extent a set of statements, covering the last 2 weeks, are true on a 1 ('not bothered') to 4 ('very bothered') scale. It has previously been shown that the genetic correlation between SCL-5 and mood disorders measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview was close to 1.0, suggesting that the genetic risk for depression can be captured by just five items (Gjerde et al, 2011). We calculated mean-scores for each individual for each time-point.…”