Do environmental effects indexed by parental genetic variation influence common psychiatric symptoms in childhood?

Bibliographic Details
Title: Do environmental effects indexed by parental genetic variation influence common psychiatric symptoms in childhood?
Authors: Eshim S. Jami, Anke R. Hammerschlag, Hannah M. Sallis, Zhen Qiao, Ole A. Andreassen, Per M. Magnus, Pål R. Njølstad, Alexandra Havdahl, Jean-Baptiste Pingault, David M. Evans, Marcus R. Munafò, Eivind Ystrom, Meike Bartels, Christel Middeldorp
Source: Translational Psychiatry, Vol 13, Iss 1, Pp 1-6 (2023)
Publisher Information: Nature Publishing Group, 2023.
Publication Year: 2023
Collection: LCC:Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Subject Terms: Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry, RC321-571
More Details: Abstract Parental genes may indirectly influence offspring psychiatric outcomes through the environment that parents create for their children. These indirect genetic effects, also known as genetic nurture, could explain individual differences in common internalising and externalising psychiatric symptoms during childhood. Advanced statistical genetic methods leverage data from families to estimate the overall contribution of parental genetic nurture effects. This study included up to 10,499 children, 5990 mother–child pairs, and 6,222 father–child pairs from the Norwegian Mother Father and Child Study. Genome-based restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) models were applied using software packages GCTA and M-GCTA to estimate variance in maternally reported depressive, disruptive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in 8-year-olds that was explained by direct offspring genetic effects and maternal or paternal genetic nurture. There was no strong evidence of genetic nurture in this sample, although a suggestive paternal genetic nurture effect on offspring depressive symptoms (variance explained (V) = 0.098, standard error (SE) = 0.057) and a suggestive maternal genetic nurture effect on ADHD symptoms (V = 0.084, SE = 0.058) was observed. The results indicate that parental genetic nurture effects could be of some relevance in explaining individual differences in childhood psychiatric symptoms. However, robustly estimating their contribution is a challenge for researchers given the current paucity of large-scale samples of genotyped families with information on childhood psychiatric outcomes.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2158-3188
Relation: https://doaj.org/toc/2158-3188
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02348-y
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/78a09fc9378445a288d3d72bcea7dcc6
Accession Number: edsdoj.78a09fc9378445a288d3d72bcea7dcc6
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:21583188
DOI:10.1038/s41398-023-02348-y
Published in:Translational Psychiatry
Language:English