Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Offspring of depressed mothers have elevated risk of developing depression because they are exposed to greater stress. While generally assumed that youth's increased exposure to stress is due to the environmental effects of living with a depressed parent, youth's genes may influence stress exposure through gene-environment correlations (rGEs). To understand the relationship between risk for depression and stress, we examined the effects of polygenic risk for depression on youth stress exposure.Methods
We examined the relations of a polygenic risk score (PRS) for depression (DEP-PRS), as well as PRSs for 5 other disorders, with youth stress exposure. Data were from a longitudinal study of a community sample of youth and their parents (n = 377) focusing on data collected at youth's aged 12 and 15 assessments.Results
Elevated youth DEP-PRS was robustly associated with increased dependent stress, particularly interpersonal events. Exploratory analyses indicated that findings were driven by major stress and were not moderated by maternal nor paternal history of depression, and of the 5 additional PRSs tested, only elevated genetic liability for bipolar I was associated with increased dependent stress-particularly non-interpersonal events.Limitations
Like other PRS studies, we focused on those of European ancestry thus, generalizability of findings is limited.Conclusion
Polygenic risk contributes to youth experiencing stressful life events which are dependent on their behavior. This rGE appears to be specific to genetic risk for mood disorders.
SUBMITTER: Harrison TJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10958668 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Harrison Thomas J TJ Docherty Anna R AR Finsaas Megan C MC Kotov Roman R Shabalin Andrey A AA Waszczuk Monika A MA Katz Benjamin A BA Davila Joanne J Klein Daniel N DN
Journal of affective disorders 20230815
<h4>Background</h4>Offspring of depressed mothers have elevated risk of developing depression because they are exposed to greater stress. While generally assumed that youth's increased exposure to stress is due to the environmental effects of living with a depressed parent, youth's genes may influence stress exposure through gene-environment correlations (rGEs). To understand the relationship between risk for depression and stress, we examined the effects of polygenic risk for depression on yout ...[more]