Polygenic differential susceptibility to prenatal adversity

Dev Psychopathol. 2019 May;31(2):439-441. doi: 10.1017/S0954579418000378. Epub 2018 Aug 7.

Abstract

A recent article in this journal reported a number of gene × environment interactions involving a serotonin transporter-gene network polygenic score and a composite index of prenatal adversity predicting several problem behavior outcomes at 48 months (e.g., anxious/depressed, pervasive developmental problems) and at 60 months (e.g., withdrawal, internalizing problems), yet did not illuminate the nature or form these genetic × environment interactions took. Here we report results of six additional analyses to evaluate whether these interactions reflected diathesis-stress or differential-susceptibility related processes. Analyses of the regions of significance and proportion of interaction index are consistent with the diathesis-stress model, seemingly because of the truncated nature of the adversity score (which did not extend to supportive/positive prenatal experiences/exposures); in contrast, the proportion (of cases) affected index favors the differential-susceptibility model. These results suggest the need for future studies to extend measurement of the prenatal environment to highly supportive experiences and exposures.

MeSH terms

  • Anxiety / genetics*
  • Depression / genetics*
  • Female
  • Gene-Environment Interaction*
  • Genetic Predisposition to Disease*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Multifactorial Inheritance
  • Pregnancy
  • Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / genetics*
  • Problem Behavior*