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    J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2006 Feb;34(1):1-17. Epub 2006 Feb 8.

    Genetic and environmental contributions to common psychopathologies of childhood and adolescence: a study of twins and their siblings.

    Ehringer MA, Rhee SH, Young S, Corley R, Hewitt JK.

    Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado at Boulder, 80309, USA. Marissa.Ehringer@colorado.edu

    We report findings based on analyses of self-reports of six common adolescent psychopathologies (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADHD; conduct disorder, CD; oppositional defiant disorder, ODD; generalized anxiety disorder, GAD; separation anxiety disorder, SAD; and major depressive disorder, MDD) in a sample of 1,162 male and female adolescent (12-19 years) twin pairs and 426 siblings. Prevalence statistics for past year and lifetime reports confirm differences between genders for CD, GAD, SAD, and MDD, and a lack of differences between twins and their non-twin siblings. Biometrical modeling was conducted to ascertain the relative influences of genes, and shared and non-shared environments contributing to these disorders. A more robust estimate of these parameters was obtained by including non-twin siblings. Age-specific thresholds were integrated into the analyses to appropriately model the developmental patterns of behavior. We found evidence for both genetic and non-shared environmental influences for all disorders. Shared environmental influences also seem to be important for MDD and lifetime GAD.

    PMID: 16465480 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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