Children's attentional biases and 5-HTTLPR genotype: potential mechanisms linking mother and child depression.

ABSTRACT: In this study, we examined the roles of specific cognitive (attentional bias) and genetic (5-HTTLPR) risk factors in the intergenerational transmission of depression. Focusing first on the link between maternal history of major depressive disorder (MDD) and children's attentional biases, we found that children of mothers with a history of MDD during their children's lives, compared to children of mothers with no depression history, exhibited greater attentional avoidance of sad faces. This attention bias was specific to sad, rather than happy or angry, faces. There was also preliminary evidence that this relation is stronger among children carrying the 5-HTTLPR S or L(G) allele than among those homozygous for the L(A) allele. Next, conceptualizing mothers' levels of depressive symptoms dur

SUBMITTER: Gibb BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4113083 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature