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A multivariate Swedish national twin-sibling study in women of major depression, anxiety disorder, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome

Kendler, Kenneth S. ; Ohlsson, Henrik LU ; Neale, Michael ; Van Loo, Hanna ; Rosmalen, Judith G.M. ; Sundquist, Jan LU and Sundquist, Kristina LU (2025) In Psychological Medicine 55.
Abstract

Background Functional Somatic Disorders (FSD) and Internalizing Psychiatric Disorders (IPD) are frequently comorbid and likely share familial/genetic risk factors. Methods We performed a Common Factor Multivariate Analysis of 2 FSDs, Fibromyalgia (FM) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and two IPDs, Major Depression (MD) and Anxiety Disorders (AD), in five kinds of Swedish female-female relative pairs: monozygotic (n = 8,052) dizygotic (n = 7216), full siblings (n = 712,762), half-siblings reared together (n = 23,623), and half-siblings reared apart (n = 53,873). Model fitting was by full information maximum likelihood using OpenMx. Results The best-fit model included genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental factors. The... (More)

Background Functional Somatic Disorders (FSD) and Internalizing Psychiatric Disorders (IPD) are frequently comorbid and likely share familial/genetic risk factors. Methods We performed a Common Factor Multivariate Analysis of 2 FSDs, Fibromyalgia (FM) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and two IPDs, Major Depression (MD) and Anxiety Disorders (AD), in five kinds of Swedish female-female relative pairs: monozygotic (n = 8,052) dizygotic (n = 7216), full siblings (n = 712,762), half-siblings reared together (n = 23,623), and half-siblings reared apart (n = 53,873). Model fitting was by full information maximum likelihood using OpenMx. Results The best-fit model included genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental factors. The common factor, ~50% heritable with a small shared environmental effect, loaded more strongly on the two IPDs (~0.80) than the 2 FSDs (0.40). Disorder-specific genetic effects were larger for the 2 FSDs (~0.30) than the 2 IPDs (~0.03). Estimated genetic correlations were high for MD and AD (+0.91), moderate between IBS and IPDs (+0.62), and intermediate between FM and MD (+0.54), FM and AD (+0.28), and FM and IBS (+0.38). Shared environmental influences on all disorders were present but small. Conclusions In women, FSDs and IPDs shared a moderate proportion of their genetic risk factors, greater for IBS than for FM. However, the genetic sharing between IBS and FM was less than between MD and AD, suggesting that FSDs do not form a highly genetically coherent group of disorders. The shared environment made a modest contribution to the familial aggregation of FSDs and IPDs.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Anxiety Disorders, Fibromyalgia, Functional Somatic Disorders, Genetic Risk, Internalizing Psychiatric Disorders, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Major Depression
in
Psychological Medicine
volume
55
article number
e125
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:105003767780
  • pmid:40289642
ISSN
0033-2917
DOI
10.1017/S0033291725000923
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bd3a1605-18b2-4b96-9807-771b5aa4f999
date added to LUP
2025-08-11 13:30:36
date last changed
2025-08-12 03:00:08
@article{bd3a1605-18b2-4b96-9807-771b5aa4f999,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background Functional Somatic Disorders (FSD) and Internalizing Psychiatric Disorders (IPD) are frequently comorbid and likely share familial/genetic risk factors. Methods We performed a Common Factor Multivariate Analysis of 2 FSDs, Fibromyalgia (FM) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and two IPDs, Major Depression (MD) and Anxiety Disorders (AD), in five kinds of Swedish female-female relative pairs: monozygotic (n = 8,052) dizygotic (n = 7216), full siblings (n = 712,762), half-siblings reared together (n = 23,623), and half-siblings reared apart (n = 53,873). Model fitting was by full information maximum likelihood using OpenMx. Results The best-fit model included genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental factors. The common factor, ~50% heritable with a small shared environmental effect, loaded more strongly on the two IPDs (~0.80) than the 2 FSDs (0.40). Disorder-specific genetic effects were larger for the 2 FSDs (~0.30) than the 2 IPDs (~0.03). Estimated genetic correlations were high for MD and AD (+0.91), moderate between IBS and IPDs (+0.62), and intermediate between FM and MD (+0.54), FM and AD (+0.28), and FM and IBS (+0.38). Shared environmental influences on all disorders were present but small. Conclusions In women, FSDs and IPDs shared a moderate proportion of their genetic risk factors, greater for IBS than for FM. However, the genetic sharing between IBS and FM was less than between MD and AD, suggesting that FSDs do not form a highly genetically coherent group of disorders. The shared environment made a modest contribution to the familial aggregation of FSDs and IPDs.</p>}},
  author       = {{Kendler, Kenneth S. and Ohlsson, Henrik and Neale, Michael and Van Loo, Hanna and Rosmalen, Judith G.M. and Sundquist, Jan and Sundquist, Kristina}},
  issn         = {{0033-2917}},
  keywords     = {{Anxiety Disorders; Fibromyalgia; Functional Somatic Disorders; Genetic Risk; Internalizing Psychiatric Disorders; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Major Depression}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Psychological Medicine}},
  title        = {{A multivariate Swedish national twin-sibling study in women of major depression, anxiety disorder, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725000923}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S0033291725000923}},
  volume       = {{55}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}