HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS Psychiatric Bulletin Advances in Psychiatric Treatment All RCPsych Journals		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in BJP Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wichers, M. Articles by Van Os, J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wichers, M. Articles by Van Os, J.

Genetic risk of depression and stress-induced negative affect in daily life

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Nele Jacobs, MA, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Maastricht and Faculty of Psychology, Open University of The Netherlands, Heerlen

Frenk Peeters, MD, PhD and Gunter Kenis, MSc, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Maastricht

Catherine Derom, MSc, PhD and Robert Vlietinck, MD, PhD

Department of Human Genetics, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Philippe Delespaul, MA, PhD

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Maastricht

Jim Van Os

Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, and Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

Correspondence: M.C. Wichers, Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University, Vijverdalseweg 1, Concorde Building, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 43 368 8669; fax: +31 43 368 8689; email: m.wichers{at}sp.unimaas.nl

Declaration of interest None.

Background A bias to develop negative affect in response to daily life stressors may be an important depression endophenotype, but remains difficult to assess.

Aims To assess this mood bias endophenotype, uncontaminated by current mood, in the course of daily life.

Method The experience sampling method was used to collect multiple appraisals of daily life event-related stress and negative affect in 279 female twin pairs. Cross-twin, cross-trait associations between dailylife mood bias and DSM-IV depression were conducted.

Results Probands whose co-twins were diagnosed with lifetime depression showed a stronger mood bias to stress than those with co-twins without such a diagnosis, independent of probands' current depressive symptoms and to a greater extent in monozygotic twins than in dizygotic twins.

Conclusions Genetic liability to depression is in part expressed as the tendency to display negative affect in response to minor stressors in daily life. This trait may represent a true depression endophenotype.

Related articles in BJP:

Highlights of this issue

Sukhwinder S. Shergill
BJP 2007 191: A9. [Full Text]