Center for Research on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic and Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University.
Department of Psychology, Yale University.
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2017 Nov;85(11):1052-1063. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000254.
Depression, like other mental disorders and health conditions generally, is increasingly construed as genetically based. This research sought to determine whether merely telling people that they have a genetic predisposition to depression can cause them to retroactively remember having experienced it.
U.S. adults (men and women) were recruited online to participate (Experiment 1: N = 288; Experiment 2: N = 599). After conducting a test disguised as genetic screening, we randomly assigned some participants to be told that they carried elevated genetic susceptibility to depression, whereas others were told that they did not carry this genetic liability or were told that they carried elevated susceptibility to a different disorder. Participants then rated their experience of depressive symptoms over the prior 2 weeks on a modified version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II.
Participants who were told that their genes predisposed them to depression generally reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology over the previous 2 weeks, compared to those who did not receive this feedback.
Given the central role of self-report in psychiatric diagnosis, these findings highlight potentially harmful consequences of personalized genetic testing in mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record
与其他精神障碍和一般健康状况一样，抑郁症越来越被认为是基于遗传的。这项研究旨在确定仅仅告诉人们他们有患抑郁症的遗传倾向是否会导致他们事后回忆起自己有过这种经历。
在美国招募成年男女（男性和女性）在线参与（实验 1：N=288；实验 2：N=599）。在进行一项伪装成基因筛查的测试后，我们随机分配一些参与者被告知他们携带升高的抑郁遗传易感性，而其他人则被告知他们没有携带这种遗传倾向，或者被告知他们携带升高的易感性另一种疾病。然后，参与者根据贝克抑郁量表 II 的修改版对过去两周的抑郁症状体验进行评分。
与没有收到这种反馈的参与者相比，被告知其基因易患抑郁症的参与者通常报告过去两周的抑郁症状水平更高。
鉴于自我报告在精神疾病诊断中的核心作用，这些发现强调了个性化基因检测在精神健康方面可能产生的有害后果。
