Research report
Genetic influences on the cognitive biases associated with anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents

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Abstract

Background

There is a substantial overlap between genes affecting anxiety and depression. Both anxiety and depression are associated with cognitive biases such as anxiety sensitivity and attributional style. Little, however, is known about the relationship between these variables and whether these too are genetically correlated.

Methods

Self-reports of anxiety sensitivity, anxiety symptoms, attributional style and depression symptoms were obtained for over 1300 adolescent twin and sibling pairs at two time points. The magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on the measures was examined.

Results

Strongest associations were found between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety ratings at both measurement times (r = .70, .72) and between anxiety and depression (r = .62 at both time points). Correlations between the cognitive biases were modest at time 1 (r =  .12) and slightly larger at time 2 (r =  .31). All measures showed moderate genetic influence. Generally genetic correlations reflected phenotypic correlations. Thus the highest genetic correlations were between anxiety sensitivity and anxiety ratings (.86, .87) and between anxiety and depression ratings (.77, .71). Interestingly, depression ratings also showed a high genetic correlation with anxiety sensitivity (.70, .76). Genetic correlations between the cognitive bias measures were moderate (− .31, − .46).

Limitations

The sample consists primarily of twins, there are limitations associated with the twin design.

Conclusions

Cognitive biases associated with depression and anxiety are not as genetically correlated as anxiety and depression ratings themselves. Further research into the cognitive processes related to anxiety and depression will facilitate understanding of the relationship between bias and symptoms.

Section snippets

Participants

The present analyses combine data from the G1219 and G1219Twins longitudinal studies. G1219 began as the adolescent offspring of adults from a large-scale population-based study (GENESiS: Genetic–Environment Study of Emotional States in Siblings, Sham et al., 2000). Of the 9000 families contacted through GENESiS, a total of 3600 (40%) participated either in this study or another study on hyperactivity (Curran et al., 2003). The G1219Twins are a random selection of live twin births born between

Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics for all four study variables at both time points are given in Table 1. Females rated their anxiety and depression as higher than males both at time 1 (t(2599) =  12.46, p < 0.01 for anxiety and t(2627) =  9.57, p < 0.01 for depression) and at time 2 (t(1568) =  9.787, p < 0.01 for anxiety and t(1589) =  7.479, p < 0.01 for depression).

Phenotypic associations

The phenotypic correlations amongst the variables are provided in Table 2. The strongest associations in both sexes and at both times were between anxiety

Summary

In contrast to the high genetic correlations between anxiety and depression our study found only moderate genetic correlations between anxiety sensitivity and attributional style. Genetic correlations between cognitive biases were, however, higher than non-shared environmental correlations suggesting genetic rather than environmental factors drive more of the covariation between these cognitive biases.

What was notable from the univariate analysis was the degree of similarity in the genetic and

Role of funding source

The G1219 study was supported by the WT Grant Foundation, the University of London Central Research fund and a Medical Research Council Training Fellowship and Career Development Award to Thalia Eley. The G1219 study is currently supported by a research grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-2206) and a grant from the Institute of Social Psychiatry to Alice Gregory who is currently supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. Helena Zavos is supported by a Medical

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the families for their participation, and Sally Cartwright, Jenny Cox, Joseph Hayward, Georgina Hosang, Alessandra Iervolino, Jennifer Lau, Holan Liang, Maria Napolitano, Ben Neale, Robert Plomin, Richard Rowe, Pak Sham, Abram Sterne, Eileen Walsh, Richard Williamson and Tom Willis for their input to various stages of the project.

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