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Adverse life event reporting and worst illness episodes in unipolar and bipolar affective disorders: measuring environmental risk for genetic research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2010

G. M. Hosang ,
A. Korszun ,
L. Jones ,
I. Jones ,
J. M. Gray ,
C. M. Gunasinghe ,
P. McGuffin  and
A. E. Farmer
G. M. Hosang*
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
A. Korszun
Affiliation:
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London – Centre for Psychiatry, London, UK
L. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, National Centre for Mental Health, Birmingham, UK
I. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, The Henry Wellcome Building for Biomedical Research in Wales, Academic Avenue, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
J. M. Gray
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
C. M. Gunasinghe
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
P. McGuffin
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
A. E. Farmer
Affiliation:
MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Ms. G. M. Hosang, MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. (Email: georgina.hosang@kcl.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Background

Studies exploring gene–environment interplay in affective disorders now include very large numbers of participants. Methods for evaluating the role of adversity in such studies need to be developed that do not rely on lengthy and labour-intensive interviews. In the present study, a brief questionnaire method for measuring 11 adverse events reported before interview and before their worst illness episodes by bipolar, unipolar and healthy control participants, participating in genetic association studies, was evaluated.

Method

Five hundred and twelve bipolar disorder (BD) participants, 1447 participants with recurrent unipolar depression (UPD) and 1346 psychiatrically healthy control participants underwent the researcher-administered version of the List of Threatening Experiences Questionnaire (LTE-Q) for the 6 months before their worst affective episodes for UPD and BD participants, and for the 6 months before interview for the UPD participants and controls.

Results

UPD and BD cases were significantly more likely to report at least one event, as well as more events in the 6 months before interview and before their worst illness episodes, than healthy controls. Both manic and depressive episodes were significantly associated with adverse events in the BD cases. Depressed mood at the time of interview influenced event reporting in UPD and control participants but not the BD cases. Age was negatively correlated with the number of events reported by controls.

Conclusions

The researcher-administered LTE-Q provides a measure of case-control differences for adversity that is applicable in large genetic association studies. Confounding factors for event reporting include present mood and age.

Keywords

Bipolar affective disordergene-environment interplaygeneticsstressful life eventsunipolar depression
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 11 , November 2010 , pp. 1829 - 1837
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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