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Premenstrual mood symptoms: study of familiality and personality correlates in mood disorder pedigrees

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Abstract

We sought to determine whether premenstrual mood symptoms exhibit familial aggregation in bipolar disorder or major depression pedigrees. Two thousand eight hundred seventy-six women were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies as part of either the NIMH Genetics Initiative Bipolar Disorder Collaborative study or the Genetics of Early Onset Major Depression (GenRED) study and asked whether they had experienced severe mood symptoms premenstrually. In families with two or more female siblings with bipolar disorder (BP) or major depressive disorder (MDD), we examined the odds of having premenstrual mood symptoms given one or more siblings with these symptoms. For the GenRED MDD sample we also assessed the impact of personality as measured by the NEO-FFI. Premenstrual mood symptoms did not exhibit familial aggregation in families with BP or MDD. We unexpectedly found an association between high NEO openness scores and premenstrual mood symptoms, but neither this factor, nor NEO neuroticism influenced evidence for familial aggregation of symptoms. Limitations include the retrospective interview, the lack of data on premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and the inability to control for factors such as medication use.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by a Career Development Award from the NIMH (K23 MH-074799), and by a Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD).

We are grateful to Jen Toolan and Brandie Craighead for their contributions. We are also grateful to the many interviewers and diagnosticians who contributed to this project, and to the families who devoted their time and effort to the study.

Some of the data were collected in six projects that participated in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Genetics of Recurrent Early-Onset Depression (GenRED) project. From 1999–2003, the project was supported by NIMH grants to: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, R01MH060912, Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D. and James K. Knowles, M.D., Ph.D.; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, R01 MH060866, George S. Zubenko, M.D., Ph.D. and Wendy N. Zubenko, Ed.D., R.N., C.S.; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, R01MH059552, J. Raymond DePaulo, M.D., Melvin G. McInnis, M.D. and Dean MacKinnon, M.D.; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, RO1 MH61686, Douglas F. Levinson, M.D. (GenRED coordinator), Madeleine M. Gladis, Ph.D., Kathleen Murphy-Eberenz, Ph.D. and Peter Holmans, Ph.D. (University of Wales College of Medicine); University of Iowa, Iowa City, IW, R01 MH059542, Raymond R. Crowe, M.D. and William H. Coryell, M.D.; Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, R01 MH059541-05, William A. Scheftner, M.D., Rush-Presbyterian. Some of the data were collected as part of ten projects that participated in The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Bipolar Disorder Genetics Initiative. From 1999–2003, the Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators were: Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, R01 MH59545, John Nurnberger, M.D., Ph.D., Marvin J. Miller, M.D., Elizabeth S. Bowman, M.D., N. Leela Rau, M.D., P. Ryan Moe, M.D., Nalini Samavedy, M.D., Rif El-Mallakh, M.D. (at University of Louisville), Husseini Manji, M.D. (at Wayne State University), Debra A. Glitz, M.D. (at Wayne State University), Eric T. Meyer, M.S., Carrie Smiley, R.N., Tatiana Foroud, Ph.D., Leah Flury, M.S., Danielle M. Dick, Ph.D., Howard Edenberg, Ph.D.; Washington University, St. Louis, MO, R01 MH059534, John Rice, Ph.D,Theodore Reich, M.D., Allison Goate, Ph.D., Laura Bierut, M.D.; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, R01 MH59533, Melvin McInnis M.D. , J. Raymond DePaulo, Jr., M.D., Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D., Francis M. Mondimore, M.D., James B. Potash, M.D., Peter P. Zandi, Ph.D, Dimitrios Avramopoulos, Ph.D. and Jennifer Payne, M.D.; University of Pennsylvania, PA, R01 MH59553, Wade Berrettini M.D.,Ph.D. ; University of California at Irvine, CA, R01 MH60068, William Byerley M.D., and Mark Vawter M.D. ; University of Iowa, IA, R01 MH059548, William Coryell M.D. , and Raymond Crowe M.D. ; University of Chicago, IL, R01 MH59535, Elliot Gershon, M.D., Judith Badner Ph.D., Francis McMahon M.D. , Chunyu Liu Ph.D., Alan Sanders M.D., Maria Caserta, Steven Dinwiddie M.D., Tu Nguyen, Donna Harakal; University of California at San Diego, CA, R01 MH59567, John Kelsoe, M.D., Rebecca McKinney, B.A.; Rush University, IL, R01 MH059556, William Scheftner M.D. , Howard M. Kravitz, D.O., M.P.H., Diana Marta, B.S., Annette Vaughn-Brown, MSN, RN, and Laurie Bederow, MA; NIMH Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, MD, 1Z01MH002810-01, Francis J. McMahon, M.D., Layla Kassem, PsyD, Sevilla Detera-Wadleigh, Ph.D, Lisa Austin, Ph.D, Dennis L. Murphy, M.D.

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Payne, J.L., Klein, S.R., Zamoiski, R.B. et al. Premenstrual mood symptoms: study of familiality and personality correlates in mood disorder pedigrees. Arch Womens Ment Health 12, 27–34 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-008-0043-4

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