Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Psychol Med. 2012 Sep;42(9):1801-14. doi: 10.1017/S003329171100300X. Epub 2012 Jan 25.
Negative life events are strongly associated with the development of depression. However, the etiologic relationship between life events and depression is complex. Evidence suggests that life events can cause depression, and depression increases the risk for life events. Additionally, third factors influencing both phenotypes may be involved. In this work we sought to disentangle these relationships using a genetically informative longitudinal design.
Adult female twins (n=536, including 281 twin pairs) were followed up for measurements of negative life event exposure and depressive symptoms. Four follow-ups were completed, each approximately 3 months apart. Model fitting was carried out using the Mx program.
The best-fitting model included causal paths from life events to depressive symptoms for genetic and shared environmental risk factors, whereas paths from depressive symptoms to life events were apparent for shared environmental factors. Shared latent influence on both phenotypes was found for individual-specific effects.
Life events and depressive symptoms have complex inter-relationships that differ across sources of variance. The results of the model, if replicated, indicate that reducing life event exposure would reduce depressive symptoms and that lowering depressive symptoms would decrease the occurrence of negative life events.
负面生活事件与抑郁症的发展密切相关。然而，生活事件与抑郁症之间的病因关系很复杂。有证据表明，生活事件会导致抑郁，而抑郁会增加生活事件发生的风险。此外，还可能涉及影响两种表型的第三个因素。在这项工作中，我们试图使用遗传信息丰富的纵向设计来理清这些关系。
成年女性双胞胎（n=536，包括 281 对双胞胎）接受了负面生活事件暴露和抑郁症状的测量。完成了四次随访，每次大约相隔 3 个月。使用 Mx 程序进行模型拟合。
最佳拟合模型包括遗传和共享环境风险因素从生活事件到抑郁症状的因果路径，而从抑郁症状到生活事件的路径则适用于共享环境因素。个体特定影响的共享潜在影响存在于两种表型中。
生活事件和抑郁症状之间存在复杂的相互关系，其差异源于不同的方差源。如果该模型的结果得到复制，这表明减少生活事件的暴露会降低抑郁症状，而降低抑郁症状会减少负面生活事件的发生。
