McGuffin P, Katz R, Bebbington P
University of Wales College of Medicine.
Br J Psychiatry. 1988 Jun;152:775-82. doi: 10.1192/bjp.152.6.775.
The relationship between life events and depressive disorder was assessed in 83 families ascertained through depressed probands. Contrary to expectation and to previous suggestions, we found no inverse relationship between the presence of familial loading and reactivity to stress. Thus the relatives of probands whose onset of depression followed life events or chronic difficulties had slightly higher lifetime rates of depression than the relatives of probands whose onset was not associated with adversity. There was only a weak and non-significant relationship between recent life events and current disorder among relatives, and no apparent tendency for life-event-associated depression to 'breed true' within families. Comparison with a community sample showed that the first-degree relatives of depressives had significantly elevated rates both of current depression and of recent threatening life events. This finding still held when proband-associated life events were discounted, suggesting that both liability to depression and propensity to experience life events are familial.
通过抑郁先证者确定了83个家庭，评估了生活事件与抑郁症之间的关系。与预期和之前的观点相反，我们发现家族负荷的存在与应激反应之间不存在负相关。因此，抑郁症发作继发于生活事件或长期困难的先证者亲属，其一生中患抑郁症的比率略高于抑郁症发作与逆境无关的先证者亲属。亲属中近期生活事件与当前疾病之间只有微弱且无统计学意义的关系，且生活事件相关的抑郁症在家庭中并无明显的“遗传”倾向。与社区样本相比，抑郁症患者的一级亲属当前患抑郁症的比率以及近期经历威胁性生活事件的比率均显著升高。排除与先证者相关的生活事件后，这一发现仍然成立，表明患抑郁症的易感性和经历生活事件的倾向都具有家族性。
