Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:23:29.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adverse life event reporting and worst illness episodes in unipolar and bipolar affective disorders: measuring environmental risk for genetic research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2010

G. M. Hosang ,
A. Korszun ,
L. Jones ,
I. Jones ,
J. M. Gray ,
C. M. Gunasinghe ,
P. McGuffin  and
A. E. Farmer
G. M. Hosang*
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
A. Korszun
Affiliation:
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London – Centre for Psychiatry, London, UK
L. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, National Centre for Mental Health, Birmingham, UK
I. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, The Henry Wellcome Building for Biomedical Research in Wales, Academic Avenue, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
J. M. Gray
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
C. M. Gunasinghe
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
P. McGuffin
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
A. E. Farmer
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Ms. G. M. Hosang, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. (Email: georgina.hosang@kcl.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Studies exploring gene–environment interplay in affective disorders now include very large numbers of participants. Methods for evaluating the role of adversity in such studies need to be developed that do not rely on lengthy and labour-intensive interviews. In the present study, a brief questionnaire method for measuring 11 adverse events reported before interview and before their worst illness episodes by bipolar, unipolar and healthy control participants, participating in genetic association studies, was evaluated.

Method

Five hundred and twelve bipolar disorder (BD) participants, 1447 participants with recurrent unipolar depression (UPD) and 1346 psychiatrically healthy control participants underwent the researcher-administered version of the List of Threatening Experiences Questionnaire (LTE-Q) for the 6 months before their worst affective episodes for UPD and BD participants, and for the 6 months before interview for the UPD participants and controls.

Results

UPD and BD cases were significantly more likely to report at least one event, as well as more events in the 6 months before interview and before their worst illness episodes, than healthy controls. Both manic and depressive episodes were significantly associated with adverse events in the BD cases. Depressed mood at the time of interview influenced event reporting in UPD and control participants but not the BD cases. Age was negatively correlated with the number of events reported by controls.

Conclusions

The researcher-administered LTE-Q provides a measure of case-control differences for adversity that is applicable in large genetic association studies. Confounding factors for event reporting include present mood and age.

Keywords

Bipolar affective disordergene-environment interplaygeneticsstressful life eventsunipolar depression
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 11 , November 2010 , pp. 1829 - 1837
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alloy, LB, Abramson, LY, Urosevic, S, Walshaw, PD, Nusslock, R, Neeren, AM (2005). The psychosocial context of bipolar disorder: environmental, cognitive, and developmental risk factors. Clinical Psychology Review 25, 1043–1075.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alloy, LB, Abramson, LY, Walshaw, PD, Keyser, J, Gerstein, RK (2006). A cognitive vulnerability-stress perspective on bipolar spectrum disorders in a normative adolescent brain, cognitive, and emotional development. Development and Psychopathology 18, 1055–1103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambelas, A (1979). Psychologically stressful events in the precipitation of manic episodes. British Journal of Psychiatry 135, 15–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ambelas, A (1987). Life events and mania. A special relationship? British Journal of Psychiatry 150, 235–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, AT, Steer, RA, Brown, GK (1996). Beck Depression Inventory – Second Edition Manual. The Psychological Corporation: San Antonio, TX.Google Scholar
Bock, C, Bukh, JD, Vinberg, M, Gether, U, Kessing, LV (2009). Do stressful life events predict medical treatment outcome in first episode of depression? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 44, 752–760.Google Scholar
Brezo, J, Bureau, A, Merette, C, Jomphe, V, Barker, ED, Vitaro, F, Hebert, M, Carbonneau, R, Tremblay, RE, Turecki, G (2009). Differences and similarities in the serotonergic diathesis for suicide attempts and mood disorders: a 22-year longitudinal gene–environment study. Molecular Psychiatry. Published online: 21 April 2009. doi:10.1038/mp.2009.19.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, GH, Harris, TO (1978). Social Origins of Depression. Free Press: London.Google ScholarPubMed
Brugha, T, Bebbington, P, Tennant, C, Hurry, J (1985). The List of Threatening Experiences: a subset of 12 life event categories with considerable long-term contextual threat. Psychological Medicine 15, 189–194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brugha, TS, Cragg, D (1990). The List of Threatening Experiences: the reliability and validity of a brief life events questionnaire. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 82, 77–81.Google Scholar
Caspi, A, Sugden, K, Moffitt, TE, Taylor, A, Craig, IW, Harrington, H, McClay, J, Mill, J, Martin, J, Braithwaite, A, Poulton, R (2003). Influence of life stress on depression: moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science 301, 386–389.Google Scholar
Celik, C (2003). Computer assisted personal interviewing application for the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, Version 2.1, and diagnostic algorithms for WHO ICD-10, Chapter V DCR and for statistical manual IV. Release 1. Ed. 1.0.3.5. Win 9x NT. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar
Farmer, A, Harris, T, Redman, K, Sadler, S, Mahmood, A, McGufiin, P (2000). Cardiff Depression Study. A sib-pair study of life events and familiality in major depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 176, 150–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gaysina, D, Cohen-Woods, S, Chow, PC, Martucci, L, Schosser, A, Ball, HA, Tozzi, F, Perry, J, Muglia, P, Craig, IW, McGuffin, P, Farmer, A (2008). Association of the dystrobrevin binding protein 1 gene (DTNBP1) in a bipolar case-control study (BACCS). American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics 150B, 836–844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandin, LD, Alloy, LB, Abramson, LY (2006). The social zeitgeber theory, circadian rhythms, and mood disorders: review and evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review 26, 679–694.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, SL (2005 a). Life events in bipolar disorder: towards more specific models. Clinical Psychology Review 25, 1008–1027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, SL (2005 b). Mania and dysregulation in goal pursuit. Clinical Psychology Review 25, 241–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Korszun, A, Moskvina, V, Brewster, S, Craddock, N, Ferrero, F, Gill, M, Jones, IR, Jones, LA, Maier, W, Mors, O, Owen, MJ, Preisig, M, Reich, T, Rietschel, M, Farmer, A, McGuffin, P (2004). Familiality of symptom dimensions in depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 61, 468–474.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, JP, Fischer, M, Berteksen, A (1976). A cross-national epidemiological study of mania. British Journal of Psychiatry 129, 428–442.Google Scholar
McGuffin, P (2008). Affective disorders. In Essential Psychiatry, 4th edn (ed. Murray, R., Kendler, K. S., McGuffin, P., Wessely, S. and Castle, D. J.), pp. 250–283. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
McGuffin, P, Katz, R, Aldrich, J (1986). Past and present state examination: the assessment of ‘lifetime ever’ psychopathology. Psychological Medicine 16, 461–465.Google Scholar
Munafo, MR, Durrant, C, Lewis, G, Flint, J (2009). Gene×environment interactions at the serotonin transporter locus. Biological Psychiatry 65, 211–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paykel, ES (2003). Life events and affective disorders. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Supplementum 108, S61–S66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sham, PC, Sterne, A, Purcell, S, Cherny, S, Webster, M, Rijsdijk, F, Asherson, P, Ball, D, Craig, I, Eley, T, Goldberg, D, Gray, J, Mann, A, Owen, M, Plomin, R (2000). GENESiS: creating a composite index of the vulnerability to anxiety and depression in a community-based sample of siblings. Twin Research 3, 316–322.Google Scholar
Uher, R, McGuffin, P (2008). The moderation by the serotonin transporter gene of environmental adversity in the aetiology of mental illness: review and methodological analysis. Molecular Psychiatry 13, 131–146.Google Scholar
Weissman, MM, Bland, RC, Canino, GJ, Faravelli, C, Greenwald, S, Hwu, H, Joyce, PR, Karam, EG, Lee, C, Lellouch, J, Lépine, J, Newman, SC, Rubio-Stipec, M, Wells, JE, Wickramaratne, PJ, Wittchen, H, Yeh, E (1996). Cross-national epidemiology of major depression and bipolar disorder. JAMA 276, 293–299.Google Scholar
Wing, JK, Babor, T, Brugha, T, Burke, J, Cooper, JE, Giel, R, Jablenski, A, Regier, D, Sartorius, N (1990). SCAN. Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry 47, 589–593.Google Scholar
WHO (1993). The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders. Diagnostic Criteria for Research. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar