Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sleep, Pain, and Depression Symptoms in a Community Sample of Twins

Abstract

Objective We used quantitative genetic methods to evaluate whether sleep quality, pain, and depression symptoms share a common genetic diathesis, to estimate the genetic and environmental sources of covariance among these symptoms, and to test for possible causal relationships. Methods A community sample of 400 twins from the University of Washington Twin Registry completed standardized self-report questionnaires. We used biometric modeling to assess genetic and environmental contribution to the association between sleep quality measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), pain measured by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), and depression symptoms measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-dep). Trivariate Cholesky structural equation models were used to decompose correlations among the phenotypes. Results Heritability was estimated at 37% (95% CI: 20, 51%) for sleep quality, 25% (9, 41%) for pain, and 39% (22, 53%) for depression. Non-shared environmental influences accounted for the remaining variance. The genetic correlation between sleep quality and pain was rg = 0.69 (95%CI: 0.33, 0.97), rg = 0.56 (0.55, 0.98) between pain and depression, and rg = 0.61 (0.44, 0.88) between depression and sleep quality. Non-shared environmental overlap was present between pain and sleep quality and depression and sleep quality. Conclusions The link between sleep quality, pain, and depression was primarily explained by shared genetic influences. The genetic factors influencing sleep quality and pain were highly correlated even when accounting for depression. Findings support the hypothesis of a genetic link between sleep quality and pain and potential causality for the association of sleep quality with pain and depression.

Insight into the genetic architecture of back pain and its risk factors from a study of 509,000 individuals

“…These traits are known to often co-occur with BP and twin studies have suggested that they share underlying genetic factors 17 , with similar genetic correlations also seen for other pain phenotypes. [55][56][57] Our results confirm a recent twin report of genetic correlation of sleep disturbance with BP. 58 Overall, the analysis of genetic correlations provides evidence for shared molecular pathways underlying BP and traits considered as BP risk factors, thus providing basis for identification of causal links between them.…”

Transactional associations of maternal depressive symptoms with child externalizing behaviors are small after age 3

“…When norm estimates from the nonclinical sample of the original psychometric study of the BSI were used (Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983), this proportion was estimated to be 21.6%. However, it should be noted that the mean scores of the nonclinical sample in the original psychometric study were substantially lower than those reported by subsequent studies from the United States and Western Europe (e.g., Gasperi, Herbert, Schur, Buchwald, & Afari, 2017;Rytilä-Manninen et al, 2016). The latter estimate of 21.6%, therefore, is likely to be too high.…”

Genetic correlations between pain phenotypes and depression and neuroticism

“…Pain was present in around 65% in depressed patients and up to 85% of patients with chronic pain were affected by severe depression [32]. Previous studies have reported a genetic correlation between pain and depression of 0.56 (in a sample of twins) and 0.51 (in a family-based samples) [19,33]. Although the exact mechanisms linking these conditions are not clear, genetic mechanisms are implied through shared biological pathways, such as gene expression in biological networks, the endocannabinoid system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and inflammatory pathways [34].…”