Background

Investigating siblings of probands with affective disorders enables the identification of psychopathology-related risk features. Leveraging data from an older adult sample, as compared to most previous sibling studies, enabled us to study more definitive clinical profiling across the lifespan. We examined prevalence of depressive/anxiety disorders in siblings, proband-sibling resemblance in psychopathology-related features, and whether unaffected siblings showed higher levels of these features than healthy controls.

Methods

The sample (N=929; M_age=50.6) consisted of 256 probands with lifetime depressive and/or anxiety disorders, their 380 siblings, and 293 healthy controls without affected relatives. Fifteen psychopathology-related features were investigated across four domains: mental health symptoms, social vulnerabilities, cognitive vulnerabilities, and personality.

Results

Lifetime disorders were present in 50.3% of siblings. Prevalence was 2-3 times higher than Dutch population frequencies. We found small to medium probandsibling resemblance across psychopathology-related features (ρ=0.10-0.32). Unaffected siblings reported poorer interpersonal functioning and more negative life events, childhood trauma, and rumination than healthy controls.

Limitations

Due to the cross-sectional study design, the directionality of effects cannot be determined. No inferences can be made about potential differences in familial resemblance in psychopathology-related features between high- and low-risk families.

Conclusions

Siblings of probands with affective disorders are at higher risk for depressive/anxiety disorders. Even when unaffected, still show higher psychosocial vulnerability than healthy controls. Nevertheless, the only modest proband-sibling resemblance across psychopathology-related features suggests that individual mechanisms differentiate clinical trajectories across the lifespan. Identification of these mechanisms is crucial to improve resilience in subjects with familial risk.

中文翻译：

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心理健康症状、社交和认知脆弱性以及人格的家族相似性：对抑郁和焦虑症患者及其兄弟姐妹的研究

背景

调查患有情感障碍的先证者的兄弟姐妹可以识别与精神病理学相关的风险特征。与大多数以前的兄弟姐妹研究相比，利用来自老年人样本的数据使我们能够研究更明确的整个生命周期的临床分析。我们检查了兄弟姐妹中抑郁/焦虑症的患病率、先证者兄弟姐妹在精神病理学相关特征上的相似性，以及未受影响的兄弟姐妹是否比健康对照组表现出更高水平的这些特征。

方法

样本（N=929；M_年龄=50.6）由 256 名患有终生抑郁症和/或焦虑症的先证者、他们的 380 名兄弟姐妹和 293 名没有受影响亲属的健康对照组成。在四个领域调查了 15 种与精神病理学相关的特征：心理健康症状、社会脆弱性、认知脆弱性和个性。

结果

50.3% 的兄弟姐妹存在终生障碍。患病率是荷兰人口频率的 2-3 倍。我们在精神病理学相关的特征中发现了中小概率相似性 (ρ=0.10-0.32)。与健康对照相比，未受影响的兄弟姐妹报告的人际关系功能更差，负面生活事件、童年创伤和反刍思维更多。

限制

由于横断面研究设计，无法确定效应的方向性。无法推断高风险和低风险家庭之间精神病理学相关特征的家族相似性的潜在差异。

结论

患有情感障碍的先证者的兄弟姐妹患抑郁症/焦虑症的风险更高。即使未受影响，仍比健康对照表现出更高的心理社会脆弱性。尽管如此，在精神病理学相关特征中唯一适度的先证者兄弟姐妹相似之处表明，个体机制可以区分整个生命周期的临床轨迹。确定这些机制对于提高具有家族风险的受试者的适应能力至关重要。