Depressive symptoms, avoidant coping, and alcohol use: differences based on gender and posttraumatic stress disorder in emerging adults.

Trauma exposure and alcohol use often co-occur. Unveiling predictors of drinking behavior, including among those with varying levels of trauma exposure, can inform behavioral health prevention and treatment efforts in at-risk populations. The current study examined associations between depressive symptoms, avoidant coping, gender, and alcohol use among emerging adults with and without trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use disorder symptoms: Testing interactions with polygenic risk.

The purpose of this study was to test whether COVID impact interacts with genetic risk (polygenic risk score/PRS) to predict alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms. Participants were  = 455 college students (79.6% female, 51% European Ancestry/EA, 24% African Ancestry/AFR, 25% Americas Ancestry/AMER) from a longitudinal study during the initial stage (March-May 2020) of the pandemic.

Prolonged Grief Disorder and the DSM: A History.

In the early 1990s, a research group that included Holly Prigerson and Charles Reynolds established that disordered grief overlaps with depression and anxiety but is not the same. They also developed a research inventory for studying disordered grief. Subsequently, Prigerson focused on measuring disordered grief using advanced psychometric techniques.

Revising Substance-Related Disorders in the DSM-5: A History.

Objective: This article narrates a history of several important changes to the substance-related disorders chapter in the (DSM-5), based on interviews with people involved in the pre-planning and the development of the revisions. These changes include collapsing substance abuse and substance dependence into a single substance use disorder, adding craving as a diagnostic criterion, and incorporating a behavioral addiction--gambling disorder--into the substance-related disorders chapter. Studies using Item Response Theory (IRT) supported the new substance use disorder diagnosis.

Gene Expression Differences Between Young Adults Based on Trauma History and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

The purpose of this study was to identify gene expression differences associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma exposure (TE) in a three-group study design comprised of those with and without trauma exposure and PTSD. We conducted gene expression and gene network analyses in a sample ( = 45) composed of female subjects of European Ancestry (EA) with PTSD, TE without PTSD, and controls. We identified 283 genes differentially expressed between PTSD-TE groups.

Genetic and environmental risk structure of internalizing psychopathology in youth.

Background: Internalizing disorders (IDs), consisting of syndromes of anxiety and depression, are common, debilitating conditions often beginning early in life. Various trait-like psychological constructs are associated with IDs. Our prior analysis identified a tripartite model of Fear/Anxiety, Dysphoria, and Positive Affect among symptoms of anxiety and depression and the following constructs in youth: anxiety sensitivity, fearfulness, behavioral activation and inhibition, irritability, neuroticism, and extraversion.

The DSM-5 proposal for attenuated psychosis syndrome: a history.

This article narrates a consensus history of the proposal to include diagnostic criteria for a psychosis risk syndrome in the DSM-5, in part, to document what happened, but also to potentially help focus future efforts at clinically useful early detection. The purpose of diagnosing a risk state would be to slow and ideally prevent the development of the full disorder. Concerns about diagnosing a psychosis risk state included a high false positive rate, potentially harmful use of anti-psychotic medication with people who would not transition to psychosis, and stigmatization.

Impulsivity and Comorbid PTSD and Binge Drinking.

Objective: Trauma exposure is common, with estimates of 28% to 90% of adults reporting at least one traumatic event over their lifetime. Those exposed to traumatic events are at risk for alcohol misuse (i.e.

Genetic and psychosocial predictors of alcohol use trajectories among disaster-exposed adolescents.

Background And Objectives: Adolescent alcohol misuse is associated with numerous long-term adverse outcomes, so we examined predictors of alcohol use among disaster-exposed adolescents, a group at-risk for alcohol misuse.

Methods: The current study (n = 332) examined severity of tornado-related exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, emotional support, and a genetic risk sum score (GRSS) as predictors of alcohol use trajectories.

Results: Severity of exposure interacted with the GRSS to predict both intercept (12-month follow up quantity of alcohol use) and growth rate.

Latent structure of negative valence measures in childhood.

Background: Internalizing disorders (IDs), consisting of the syndromes of anxiety and depression, are common, debilitating conditions often having onsets in adolescence. Scientists have developed dimensional self-report instruments that assess putative negative valence system (NVS) trait-like constructs as complimentary phenotypes to clinical symptoms. These include various measures that index temperamental predispositions to IDs and correlate with neural substrates of fear, anxiety, and affective regulation.

Relationships between GAT1 and PTSD, Depression, and Substance Use Disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) have large public health impacts. Therefore, researchers have attempted to identify those at greatest risk for these phenotypes. PTSD, MDD, and SUD are in part genetically influenced.

Assessment and characterization of phenotypic heterogeneity of anxiety disorders across five large cohorts.

To achieve sample sizes necessary for effectively conducting genome-wide association studies (GWASs), researchers often combine data from samples possessing multiple potential sources of heterogeneity. This is particularly relevant for psychiatric disorders, where symptom self-report, differing assessment instruments, and diagnostic comorbidity complicates the phenotypes and contribute to difficulties with detecting and replicating genetic association signals. We investigated sources of heterogeneity of anxiety disorders (ADs) across five large cohorts used in a GWAS meta-analysis project using a dimensional structural modeling approach including confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and measurement invariance (MI) testing.

Different genetic factors underlie fear conditioning and episodic memory.

Objective: Fear conditioning seems to account for the acquisition of post-traumatic stress disorder, whereas conscious recall of events in aftermath of trauma reflects episodic memory. Studies show that both fear conditioning and episodic memory are heritable, but no study has evaluated whether they reflect common or separate genetic factors. To this end, we studied episodic memory and fear conditioning in 173 healthy twin pairs using visual stimuli predicting unconditioned electric shocks.

The nosologic relationship between generalized anxiety disorder and major depression.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has undergone a series of revisions in its diagnostic criteria that has moved it, nosologically, away from its original affiliation with panic disorder (PD) and closer to major depressive disorder (MDD). This, together with its high comorbidity and putative shared genetic risk with MDD, has brought into question its place in future psychiatric nosology, prompting the planners of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-V (DSM-V) and International Classification of Diseases-11 (ICD-11) to set up a workgroup tasked to better understand the relationship between GAD and MDD. This review attempts to summarize the extant data to compare GAD and MDD on a series of research validators to explore this relationship.

The impact of generalized anxiety disorder and stressful life events on risk for major depressive episodes.

Background: Both generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and stressful life events (SLEs) are established risk factors for major depressive disorder, but no studies exist that examine the interrelationship of their impact on depressive onsets. In this study, we sought to analyze the joint effects of prior history of GAD and recent SLEs on risk for major depressive episodes, comparing these in men and women.

Method: In a population-based sample of 8068 adult twins, Cox proportional hazard models were used to predict onsets of major depression from reported prior GAD and last-year SLEs rated on long-term contextual threat.

Toward a comprehensive developmental model for major depression in men.

Objective: The multiple risk factors for major depression are interrelated through poorly understood developmental pathways. In 2002, the authors presented a developmental model for major depression in women. Based on similar methods, they here present an analogous model for men.

Genetic and environmental influences on illicit drug use and tobacco use across birth cohorts.

Background: The prevalence of use of many psychoactive substances has changed considerably in recent years. While genetic factors impact on overall risk for substance use, we know little about whether the etiological importance of these factors differs across birth cohorts. One theory, which postulates that heritability of deviant traits increases in permissive environments, predicts a positive relationship across cohorts between prevalence and heritability of substance use.

"A gene for...": the nature of gene action in psychiatric disorders.

A central phrase in the new "GeneTalk" is "X is a gene for Y," in which X is a particular gene on the human genome and Y is a complex human disorder or trait. This article begins by sketching the historical origins of this phrase and the concept of the gene-phenotype relationship that underlies it. Five criteria are then proposed to evaluate the appropriateness of the "X is a gene for Y" concept: 1) strength of association, 2) specificity of relationship, 3) noncontingency of effect, 4) causal proximity of X to Y, and 5) the degree to which X is the appropriate level of explanation for Y.

The interaction of stressful life events and a serotonin transporter polymorphism in the prediction of episodes of major depression: a replication.

Context: Prior evidence from twin studies suggested genetic moderation of the depressogenic effects of stressful life events (SLEs). Can the specific genes involved in this effect be identified?

Objective: To replicate and extend a recent study that a functional variant in the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) might in part explain these findings.

Design: Characterizing risk for major depression and generalized anxiety syndrome in the last year as a function of 5-HTT genotype, sex, and the occurrence of SLEs and ratings of the SLE-associated level of threat.

The structure of genetic and environmental risk factors for anxiety disorders in men and women.

Background: The anxiety disorders exhibit high levels of lifetime comorbidity with one another. Understanding the underlying causes of this comorbidity can provide insight into the etiology of the disorders and inform classification and treatment.

Objective: To explain anxiety disorder comorbidity by examining the structure of the underlying genetic and environmental risk factors.

Psychiatric genetics: a methodologic critique.

Psychiatric genetics, which is growing in size and influence within psychiatry, employs four major research paradigms: 1) basic genetic epidemiology, 2) advanced genetic epidemiology, 3) gene finding methods, and 4) molecular genetics. Paradigms 1 and 2 study aggregate genetic risk factors inferred from patterns of resemblance in relatives. Paradigms 3 and 4 study individual susceptibility genes localized on the human genome.

The interrelationship of neuroticism, sex, and stressful life events in the prediction of episodes of major depression.

Objective: Three potent risk factors for major depression are female sex, the personality trait of neuroticism, and adversity resulting from exposure to stressful life events. Little is known about how they interrelate in the etiology of depressive illness.

Method: In over 7,500 individual twins from a population-based sample, the authors used a Cox proportional hazard model to predict onsets of episodes of DSM-III-R major depression in the year before the latest interviews on the basis of previously assessed neuroticism, sex, and adversity during the past year; adversity was operationalized as the long-term contextual threat scored from 15 life event categories.

Personality and the experience of environmental adversity.

Background: While psychiatric epidemiology often focuses on the causal relationship between environmental adversity and the individual (e.g. environment to person), individuals probably make important contributions to the quality of their environments (person to environment).