A TWIN STUDY OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN CHILDHOOD

Background. Although depression in childhood appears to be familial, t ransmission of symptoms could be genetic or environmental. Twin studie s enable us to separate these effects.-Our aim was to assess the impor tance of genetic and environmental factors on depressive symptoms duri ng childhood and adolescence in an epidemiological sample of twins. Me thod. Ouestionnaires (including the Mood and Feelings questionnaire) w ere mailed to a systematically ascertained sample (411 twin pairs) age d between 8 and 16 years. The overall response rate was 77%. Results. Data for the whole sample were best explained by an additive genetic m odel, with heritability of depressive symptom scores estimated at 79%. However, on splitting the sample, symptoms in children (aged 8 to 11) could be explained by shared environmental factors only, while sympto ms in adolescents (aged 11 to 16) remained highly heritable. Conclusio ns. The results suggest that although depressive symptoms appear to be largely heritable, the influence of genetic and environmental factors may vary with age.