Association between stressful life events and psychotic experiences in adolescence: Evidence for gene–environment correlations
Shakoor S., Zavos HMS., Haworth CMA., McGuire P., Cardno AG., Freeman D., Ronald A.
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Stressful life events (SLEs) are associated with psychotic experiences. SLEs might act as an environmental risk factor, but may also share a genetic propensity with psychotic experiences.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>To estimate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors influence the relationship between SLEs and psychotic experiences.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>Self- and parent reports from a community-based twin sample (4830 16-year-old pairs) were analysed using structural equation model fitting.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>SLEs correlated with positive psychotic experiences (<jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.12–0.14, all <jats:italic>P</jats:italic><0.001). Modest heritability was shown for psychotic experiences (25–57%) and dependent SLEs (32%). Genetic influences explained the majority of the modest covariation between dependent SLEs and paranoia and cognitive disorganisation (bivariate heritabilities 74–86%). The relationship between SLEs and hallucinations and grandiosity was explained by both genetic and common environmental effects.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Further to dependent SLEs being an environmental risk factor, individuals may have an underlying genetic propensity increasing their risk of dependent SLEs and positive psychotic experiences.</jats:p></jats:sec>