Biomedical subjects

D L Foley

Publications and source records attributed to D L Foley.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Pregnancy and perinatal complications associated with risks for common psychiatric disorders in a population-based sample of female twins.

The association between pregnancy and perinatal complications (PPCs) and risks for adult psychiatric disorders other than psychoses has received relatively limited attention. In this study, we aim to characterize the associations between PPCs and risks for anxiety, affective, substance use, and eating disorders in a population-based sample of twins. Personal interviews were conducted with 1,806 female twin subjects to assess their lifetime history of alcoholism, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, panic disorder, simple phobias, and social phobias. PPCs were retrospectively assessed at personal interview with the subject's parents. The associations between PPCs and risks for psychiatric disorders are characterized using logistic regression. In this sample of twins, gestational age is associated with a significantly increased risk for anorexia nervosa and pregnancy complications are associated with a significantly increased risk for both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Pregnancy and perinatal complications may be associated with an increased risk for eating disorders in women.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Genetic and environmental risk factors for depression assessed by subject-rated symptom check list versus structured clinical interview.

BACKGROUND: It is not known if a subject's characteristic level of self-rated depression symptoms index their genetic or environmental liability to major depressive disorder when measurement error and other occasion-specific influences are taken into account. METHOD: Monozygotic (N = 408) and dizygotic (N = 295) adult female twin pairs from a population-based registry were surveyed twice with an average follow-up interval of 61 months. At each occasion subjects completed a structured clinical interview (SCID) to assess lifetime history of major depression and the subject-rated Symptom Check List (SCL) to assess current level of depressive symptomatology. A bivariate measurement model was used to estimate the genetic and environmental correlations between liability to reliably diagnosed lifetime history of major depression and the characteristic or temporally stable SCL depression score. RESULTS: The genetic and non-familial environmental correlation between liability to reliably diagnosed major depression and the characteristic level of SCL depression symptoms (and the proportion of variance shared between measures) is +0.70 and +0.24 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: When allowance is made for diagnostic unreliability and temporal fluctuations in the level of subject-rated symptoms, 70% of the variance in genetic risk factors and 24% of the variance in environmental risk factors is shared by a diagnosis of lifetime major depression and total SCL depression symptom score. SCL depression scores may therefore be a useful screening measure for many of the genetic risk factors which influence liability to major depression.

Major Depressive Disorder↗

PubMed2001

Parental concordance and comorbidity for psychiatric disorder and associate risks for current psychiatric symptoms and disorders in a community sample of juvenile twins.

In this report we characterize associations between parental psychiatric disorders and children's psychiatric symptoms and disorders using a population-based sample of 850 twin families. Juvenile twins are aged 8-17 years and are personally interviewed about their current history of DSM-III-R conduct, depression, oppositional-defiant, overanxious, and separation anxiety disorders using the CAPA-C. Mothers and fathers of twins are personally interviewed about their lifetime history of DSM-III-R alcoholism, antisocial personality disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, panic disorder/agoraphobia, social phobia, and simple phobia using a modified version of the SCID and the DIS. Generalized least squares and logistic regression are used to identify the juvenile symptoms and disorders that are significantly associated with parental psychiatric histories. The specificity of these associations is subsequently explored in a subset of families with maternal plus parental psychiatric histories with a prevalence > 1%. Parental depression that is not comorbid or associated with a different spousal disorder is associated with a significantly elevated level of depression and overanxious disorder symptoms and a significantly increased risk for overanxious disorder. Risks are higher for both symptomatic domains in association with maternal than paternal depression, and highest in association with maternal plus paternal depression. Risks for otherjuvenile symptoms and disorders index the comorbid and spousal histories with which parental depression is commonly associated. Paternal alcoholism that is not comorbid or associated with a maternal disorder is not significantly associated with current psychiatric symptoms or disorders in offspring. Risks for oppositional-defiant or conduct symptoms/disorders in the offspring of alcoholic parents index parental comorbidity and/or other spousal histories.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Does intra-uterine growth discordance predict differential risk for adult psychiatric disorder in a population-based sample of monozygotic twins?

The study of discordant monozygotic twins may identify important developmental risk factors for adult psychiatric disorder. Differential experience in utero is one candidate environmental risk factor that may distinguish monozygotic twins. In this report, we examine whether intra-pair differences in birth weight predicts discordance for adult psychiatric disorders in 527 female monozygotic twin pairs from a population-based twin registry. Twins were personally interviewed about their lifetime history of DSM-III-R alcoholism, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, panic disorder, social phobia and simple phobia. Birth weight was estimated from birth certificates, or from retrospective maternal, paternal and self-reports. Conditional logistic regression is used to characterize the association between intra-pair differences in birth weight and discordance for psychiatric disorder in monozygotic twins. The twin with the heavier birth weight in discordant pairs is (insignificantly) more likely to have a history of alcoholism or bulimia. The twin with the lighter birth weight in discordant pairs is (insignificantly) more likely to have a history of major depression, simple phobia, panic disorder, anorexia nervosa, social phobia or generalized anxiety disorder. For all psychiatric disorders examined, the lighter (or heavier) co-twin at birth is not systematically the affected twin within discordant pairs.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Reliability of a lifetime history of major depression: implications for heritability and co-morbidity.

BACKGROUND: In unselected samples, the diagnosis of major depression (MD) is not highly reliable. It is not known if occasion-specific influences on reliability index familial risk factors for MD, or how reliability is associated with risk for co-morbid anxiety disorders. METHODS: An unselected sample of 847 female twin pairs was interviewed twice, 5 years apart, about their lifetime history (LTH) of MD, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD). Familial influences on reliability were examined using structural equation models. Logistic regression was used to identify clinical features that predict reliable diagnosis. Co-morbidity was characterized using the continuation ratio test. RESULTS: The reliability of a LTH of MD over 5 years was fair (kappa = 0.43). There was no evidence for occasion-specific familial influences on reliability, and heritability of reliably diagnosed MD was estimated at 66%. Subjects with unreliably diagnosed MD reported fewer symptoms and, if diagnosed with MD only at the first interview, less impairment and help seeking, or, if diagnosed with MD only at the second interview, fewer episodes and a longer illness. A history of co-morbid GAD or PD is more prevalent among subjects with reliably diagnosed MD. CONCLUSIONS: A diagnosis of MD based on a single psychiatric interview incorporates a substantial amount of measurement error but there is no evidence that transient influences on recall and diagnosis index familial risk for MD. Quantitative indices of risk for MD based on multiple interviews should reflect both the characteristics of MD and the temporal order of positive diagnoses.

Anxiety Disorders↗

PubMed1998

Assortative mating for major psychiatric diagnoses in two population-based samples.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on assortment for psychiatric disorders have reported discrepant findings. We aimed to test whether there is a significant association for psychiatric diagnoses, including alcoholism, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder and phobias between husbands and wives in two population-based samples. We further evaluated whether marital resemblance occurs primarily within or across psychiatric disorders and if assortment for psychopathology is primary or secondary to assortment for correlated variables. METHODS: A model for mate selection addressed whether the correlation between mates for psychiatric disorders arises from direct assortment (primary homogamy) or through correlation with other variables for which assortment occurs (secondary homogamy) or through cross-variable assortment. The model accounted for within-person co-morbidity as well as across-spouse data. RESULTS: Findings suggested that a moderate degree of assortment exists both within and across psychiatric diagnoses. Only a small amount of the observed marital resemblance for mental illness could be explained by assortment for correlated variables such as age, religious attendance and education. Similar results were obtained for the two samples separately and confirmed in their joint analysis, revealing that the co-morbidity and assortment findings, except for the marital correlation for age, religious attendance and education, replicate across samples. CONCLUSIONS: Significant but moderate primary assortment exists for psychiatric disorders. The bias in twin studies that have ignored the small amount of assortment is negligible.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Familial risk of psychosis as a function of putative organic etiology in psychotic probands: evaluation of a population-based sample.

It is unresolved what, if any, characteristics should be used as a basis for assigning psychotic probands to different liability classes in high density family studies seeking to detect possible genetic linkage. Justification for any such assignments should ideally ensue from empirical evaluation of unselected samples. It has been suggested that the genetic liability of probands with an "organic" psychosis is lower than that found in "primary" cases. Should such cases be assigned differential liabilities in linkage analyses as one way of modeling etiologic heterogeneity? Utilizing data from a population-based family study conducted in County Roscommon in Western Ireland, we examined risk in the relatives of psychotic probands as a function of clinician ratings reflecting the probability that the proband's illness was organic. Contrary to expectation, risk was not significantly lower in relatives of probands whose illness was rated as organic by experienced clinicians. Attempts to identify possible phenocopies of psychosis with a lower familial liability in this treated epidemiologic sample were unsuccessful.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

A longitudinal study of stressful life events assessed at interview with an epidemiological sample of adult twins: the basis of individual variation in event exposure.

This study investigates the basis of individual variation in exposure to stressful life events (SLEs). A population based sample of 547 MZ and 390 DZ female-female twin pairs, aged between 17 and 55 years, were surveyed by two structured interviews, separated by at least 1 year, that enquired about SLEs experienced during the preceding 12 months. Data were analysed with a model that resolves occasion specific ("random') versus enduring ("stable') influences on SLEs. The latter is partitioned into that due to genetic, familial environmental and unique environmental factors. We demonstrate that both random factors and stable individual differences underlie variation in self-reported exposure to SLEs. For most network events this stable variance makes a relatively small contribution to the total variance in SLEs exposure and is almost entirely due to genetic or familial environmental effects. Stable individual differences are more important determinants of personal SLEs, and these reflect both familial factors as well as previous experiences unshared by relatives.

Adolescent↗