Bienvenu O Joseph, Hettema John M, Neale Michael C, Prescott Carol A, Kendler Kenneth S
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Meyer 115, 600 North Wolfe St., Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Nov;164(11):1714-21. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.06101667.
The authors examined the extent to which two major personality dimensions (extraversion and neuroticism) index the genetic and environmental risk for three phobias (social phobia, agoraphobia, and animal phobia) in twins ascertained from a large, population-based registry.
Lifetime phobias and personality traits were assessed through diagnostic interview and self-report questionnaire, respectively, in 7,800 twins from female-female, male-male, and opposite-sex pairs. Sex-limited trivariate Cholesky structural equation models were used to decompose the correlations among extraversion, neuroticism, and each phobia.
In the best-fitting models, genetic correlations were moderate and negative between extraversion and both social phobia and agoraphobia, and that between extraversion and animal phobia was effectively zero. Genetic correlations were high and positive between neuroticism and both social phobia and agoraphobia, and that between neuroticism and animal phobia was moderate. All of the genetic risk factors for social phobia and agoraphobia were shared with those that influence extraversion and neuroticism; in contrast, only a small proportion of the genetic risk factors for animal phobia (16%) was shared with those that influence personality. Shared environmental experiences were not a source of correlations between personality traits and phobias, and unique environmental correlations were relatively modest.
Genetic factors that influence individual variation in extraversion and neuroticism appear to account entirely for the genetic liability to social phobia and agoraphobia, but not animal phobia. These findings underline the importance of both introversion (low extraversion) and neuroticism in some psychiatric disorders.
作者研究了从一个大型的基于人群的登记处选取的双胞胎中，两种主要人格维度（外向性和神经质）在多大程度上指示了三种恐惧症（社交恐惧症、广场恐惧症和动物恐惧症）的遗传和环境风险。
通过诊断访谈和自我报告问卷分别对来自女性-女性、男性-男性和异性对的7800对双胞胎进行终生恐惧症和人格特质评估。使用性别限制的三变量Cholesky结构方程模型来分解外向性、神经质和每种恐惧症之间的相关性。
在拟合最佳的模型中，外向性与社交恐惧症和广场恐惧症之间的遗传相关性为中度且呈负相关，外向性与动物恐惧症之间的遗传相关性实际上为零。神经质与社交恐惧症和广场恐惧症之间的遗传相关性为高度且呈正相关，神经质与动物恐惧症之间的遗传相关性为中度。社交恐惧症和广场恐惧症的所有遗传风险因素都与影响外向性和神经质的因素相同；相比之下，动物恐惧症的遗传风险因素中只有一小部分（16%）与影响人格的因素相同。共同的环境经历不是人格特质与恐惧症之间相关性的来源，独特的环境相关性相对较小。
影响外向性和神经质个体差异的遗传因素似乎完全解释了社交恐惧症和广场恐惧症的遗传易感性，但不能解释动物恐惧症的遗传易感性。这些发现强调了内向性（低外向性）和神经质在某些精神疾病中的重要性。
