Gene-environment interplay in depressive symptoms: Moderation by age, sex, and physical illness
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Numerous factors influence late-life depressive symptoms in adults, many not thoroughly characterized. We addressed whether genetic and environmental influences on depressive symptoms differed by age, sex, and physical illness. METHOD: The analysis sample included 24 436 twins aged 40-90 years drawn from the Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) Consortium. Biometric analyses tested age, sex, and physical illness moderation of genetic and environmental variance in depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Women reported greater depressive symptoms than men. After age 60, there was an accelerating increase in depressive symptom scores with age, but this did not appreciably affect genetic and environmental variances. Overlap in genetic influences between physical illness and depressive symptoms was greater in men than in women. Additionally, in men extent of overlap was greater with worse physical illness (the genetic correlation ranged from near 0.00 for the least physical illness to nearly 0.60 with physical illness 2 s.d. above the mean). For men and women, the same environmental factors that influenced depressive symptoms also influenced physical illness. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggested that genetic factors play a larger part in the association between depressive symptoms and physical illness for men than for women. For both sexes, across all ages, physical illness may similarly trigger social and health limitations that contribute to depressive symptoms.
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Gender-related factors play an important role with respect to mental health.
“Gender-related factors were also found to play an important role with respect to mental health [235,381,382,383,384,385].”
From Biological, Psychological, and Social Determinants of Depression: A Review of Recent Literature (2021) · cites this paper as [381]
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Biological, Psychological, and Social Determinants of Depression: A Review of Recent Literature
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- Authors
- Petkus, A. J., Beam, C. R., Johnson, W., Kaprio, J., Korhonen, T., McGue, M., Neiderhiser, J. M., Pedersen, N. L., Reynolds, C. A., Gatz, M., & for the IGEMS Consortium
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- Corresponding author
- Gatz, M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2017-02-16
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1836-1847
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC5706656
- OpenAlex
- W2588309905
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- UEF eRepo (University of Eastern Finland) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (R01 AG04563, R01 AG08861, R01 AG10175)
- University of Southern California
- University of Minnesota
- Helsingin Yliopisto
- Pennsylvania State University
- Vårdalstiftelsen (2009-0795, R01 AG08861)
- Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health
- Indiana University Southeast
- Forskningsrådet för Arbetsliv och Socialvetenskap (2009-0795)
- Karolinska Institutet
- Vetenskapsrådet (825‐2007–7460, 825-2009-6141, R01 AG08861, 825-2009)
- Göteborgs Universitet
- Syddansk Universitet
- Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology
- National Institutes of Health (R01AG08861, AG10175, AG08861, R01 AG10175, AG018386, P01 AG20166, AG037985, P01 AG08761, AG20166, 5r01ag008861-03)
- University of California, San Diego
- California State University, Fullerton
- Medical Research Council (MR/K026992/1)
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG004563, P01AG008761, R01AG022982, R56AG037985, R01AG022381, R01AG010175, R01AG018384, P01AG020166, R01AG050595, R01AG037985, R01AG018386, T32AG000037, U19AG051426)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH054610)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- geriatric depression, depressive symptoms, gene-environment interaction, genetic correlation, physical illness, sex differences, age differences, twins, genetic and environmental variance, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Depression, Female, Health Status, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Scandinavian and Nordic Countries, Sex Factors, Gene-Environment Interaction
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