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Age‐of‐onset and genetic transmission in affective disorders
Author(s) -
Baron M.,
Mendlewicz J.,
Klotz J.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1981.tb00796.x
Subject(s) - proband , age of onset , psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , medicine , disease , genetics , biology , mutation , gene
Age‐of‐onset data were gathered on first‐degree relatives of 252 probands with bipolar and unipolar affective disorders. Early onset probands (younger than 40 at onset) had more early onset relatives and a greater risk for affective disorder among their relatives than late onset probands (40 or older). This indicates that age‐of‐onset is a familial factor correlated with the liability to affective illness. Multiple threshold models of inheritance were applied to the data using age‐of‐onset as a liability‐threshold determinant. The hypothesis of autosomal single‐major locus was ruled out. Multi‐factorial‐polygenic inheritance provided a better fit to the data. The data suggest that early and late onset affective disorders can be placed at different thresholds on a genetic environmental continuum and that the early onset form is more deviant genetically than the late onset type. The implications for genetic research in affective disorder are discussed.