Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan;159B(1):120-7.
doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32010. Epub 2011 Dec 7.

Genetic and environmental contributions to self-reported thoughts of self-harm and suicide

Robert R Althoff  1 , James J Hudziak, Gonneke Willemsen, Vicenta Hudziak, Meike Bartels, Dorret I Boomsma
Affiliations

Genetic and environmental contributions to self-reported thoughts of self-harm and suicide

Robert R Althoff et al. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2012 Jan.

Abstract

Thoughts of self-harm and suicidal behavior are thought to be influenced by both genetics and environment. Molecular genetic studies are beginning to address the question of which genes may be involved and whether different genes may be expressed in men and women. We examined thoughts of self-harm and suicidal behavior in a large general population twin sample including male and female same- and opposite-sex twins. In this study, data on self-reported thoughts of self-harm and suicide were obtained from self-report questionnaires (Beck Depression Inventory and Youth or Adult Self Report forms) in 6,265 twin pairs (11,008 individuals) aged 11-90 (62% female) from the Netherlands Twin Registry. Liability threshold models were compared including sex and age (linear and quadratic) effects. Models were compared using measures of parsimony to calculate the simplest model to the data. A model with additive genetic and unique environmental contributions fitted the data for both males and females. There were no qualitative sex differences, but the relative contributions differed between men and women. Heritability was higher in women (0.74, 95% CI 0.65-0.81) than men (0.45, 95% CI 0.28-0.61). The remaining variance was accounted for by environmental influence unique to an individual. These results suggest contributions from additive genetic factors to self-reported thoughts of self-harm and suicide and support the continued study of both molecular genetic and individual-specific environmental risk factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures: The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this work.

References

    1. Achenbach TM, Rescorla LA. Manual for the ASEBA School-Age Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families; 2001.
    1. Achenbach TM, Rescorla LA. Manual for ASEBA Adult Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families; 2003.
    1. Arango V, Huang YY, Underwood MD, Mann JJ. Genetics of the serotonergic system in suicidal behavior. J Psychiatr Res. 2003;37:375–86. - PubMed
    1. Azenha D, Alves M, Matos R, Santa JF, Silva B, Cordeiro C, Vieira DN, Ambrosio AM. Male specific association between the 5-HTR6 gene 267C/T SNP and suicide in the Portuguese population. Neurosci Lett. 2009;466:128–30. - PubMed
    1. Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychology Corporation; 1996.

Publication types