an article by Mandy X. Hu, Yuri Milaneschi, Femke Lamers and Brenda W. J. H. Penninx (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,The Netherlands), Ilja M. Nolte and Harold Snieder (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) and Conor V. Dolan and Eco J. C. de Geus (VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) published in Depression and Anxiety Volume 36 Issue 12 (December 2019)
Abstract
Background
Depression and anxiety may unfavourably impact on cardiac autonomic dysregulation. However, it is unclear whether this relationship results from a causal effect or may be attributable to confounding factors. We tested the relationship between depression and anxiety with heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) across a 9‐year follow‐up (FU) period and investigated possible confounding by antidepressant use and genetic pleiotropy.
Methods
Data (no. of observations = 6,994, 65% female) were obtained from the longitudinal Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, with repeated waves of data collection of HR, HRV, depression, anxiety, and antidepressant use. Summary statistics from meta‐analyses of genome‐wide association studies were used to derive polygenic risk scores of depression, HR, and HRV.
Results
Across the 9‐year FU, generalised estimating equations analyses showed that the relationship between cardiac autonomic dysregulation and depression/anxiety rendered nonsignificant after adjusting for antidepressant use. A robust association was found between antidepressant use (especially tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin, and noradrenalin reuptake inhibitors) and unfavourable cardiac autonomic activity across all waves. However, no evidence was found for a genetic correlation of depression with HR and HRV, indicating that confounding by genetic pleiotropy is minimal.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that the association between depression/anxiety and cardiac autonomic dysregulation does not result from a causal pathway or genetic pleiotropy, and these traits might therefore not be inevitably linked. Previously reported associations were likely confounded by the use of certain classes of antidepressants.
Full text (PDF 10pp)
Showing posts with label genetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genetics. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 December 2019
Friday, 15 November 2019
Review Of “Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are” By Robert Plomin
posted by S. Abbas Raza in 3 Quarks Daily: John Mullen in Metapsychology:
The author of blueprint, Robert Plomin is an American psychologist, geneticist and neuroscientist and perhaps the most important voice, over many years, in the field of behavioral genetics. It is difficult today to imaging how scientifically taboo it was to study the genetics of human behavior after the racist horrors, bogus research and eugenics projects carried out by the Germans in the Nazi period. The field of behavioral genetics got off to a politically rocky beginning in the 1960s, but has gradually gained respectability, although some of its applications, particularly in the area of race, have been controversial (I would argue, misguided). The great achievement of the field is to show without any doubt that understanding human behavior must include the factor of genetic predispositions. Robert Plomin is to be admired for his contributions and his courage. What he writes deserves attention.
Two general points about the book.
First, it is not written for specialists. For example, there is a chapter that clearly, and at a very basic level, summarizes the basics of DNA. And a major point of the book is a societal question of how to reconcile the idea of genetic influences upon behavior with beliefs in meritocracy, free will and others.
Second, ideas of innate or genetic differences among people, including human groupings, have a real potential to do harm if not discussed clearly and applied accurately. This is particularly true today as we witness a dangerous rise in racist and nationalist politics.
These two points put a difficult burden upon Robert Plomin to write very clearly so that the reader does not misunderstand his conclusions and put them to wrong-headed use.
More here. And here is another older review by Matt Ridley.
Hazel’s comment:
This book was first published just over a year ago. Judging by the two reviews it is something that I would struggle to understand in its entirety but the basics of DNA could be a useful piece of background knowledge.
The author of blueprint, Robert Plomin is an American psychologist, geneticist and neuroscientist and perhaps the most important voice, over many years, in the field of behavioral genetics. It is difficult today to imaging how scientifically taboo it was to study the genetics of human behavior after the racist horrors, bogus research and eugenics projects carried out by the Germans in the Nazi period. The field of behavioral genetics got off to a politically rocky beginning in the 1960s, but has gradually gained respectability, although some of its applications, particularly in the area of race, have been controversial (I would argue, misguided). The great achievement of the field is to show without any doubt that understanding human behavior must include the factor of genetic predispositions. Robert Plomin is to be admired for his contributions and his courage. What he writes deserves attention.
Two general points about the book.
First, it is not written for specialists. For example, there is a chapter that clearly, and at a very basic level, summarizes the basics of DNA. And a major point of the book is a societal question of how to reconcile the idea of genetic influences upon behavior with beliefs in meritocracy, free will and others.
Second, ideas of innate or genetic differences among people, including human groupings, have a real potential to do harm if not discussed clearly and applied accurately. This is particularly true today as we witness a dangerous rise in racist and nationalist politics.
These two points put a difficult burden upon Robert Plomin to write very clearly so that the reader does not misunderstand his conclusions and put them to wrong-headed use.
More here. And here is another older review by Matt Ridley.
Hazel’s comment:
This book was first published just over a year ago. Judging by the two reviews it is something that I would struggle to understand in its entirety but the basics of DNA could be a useful piece of background knowledge.
Monday, 28 October 2019
Why Mammalian Brains are Geared Toward Kindness
posted by Azra Raza in 3 Quarks Daily: Patricia Churchland in The Scientist:
Three myths about morality remain alluring:
Continue reading
Three myths about morality remain alluring:
- only humans act on moral emotions,
- moral precepts are divine in origin, and
- learning to behave morally goes against our thoroughly selfish nature.
Continue reading
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
The Causes of Schizophrenia: It's Probably Not Genetics
a post by John M. Grohol for the World of Psychology blog
For more than a century, researchers have had a deeply-held belief that schizophrenia is one form of mental illness that has its basis in genetics. In the intervening years, hundreds of millions of person-hours and billions of dollars have been funneled pursuing the genetic theory of schizophrenia.
Despite all of this enormous effort, researchers are starting to understand that perhaps the genetic component of schizophrenia has been overemphasized. And, in fact, the heritability estimates are not the 80-85 percent that some researchers claimed, but instead are far less.
Continue reading
For more than a century, researchers have had a deeply-held belief that schizophrenia is one form of mental illness that has its basis in genetics. In the intervening years, hundreds of millions of person-hours and billions of dollars have been funneled pursuing the genetic theory of schizophrenia.
Despite all of this enormous effort, researchers are starting to understand that perhaps the genetic component of schizophrenia has been overemphasized. And, in fact, the heritability estimates are not the 80-85 percent that some researchers claimed, but instead are far less.
Continue reading
Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Geneticist: It's time we stopped human evolution
as post by Alasdair Mackenzie for the Big Think blog
People trust Mother Nature to keep us healthy, forgetting that evolution is brutal and uncaring.People trust Mother Nature to keep us healthy, forgetting that evolution is brutal and uncaring.
Measles cases in the U.S. have hit a 25-year high, with 78 new infections in the past week alone. In a sign of the times, a cruise ship with hundreds of Scientologists on board was quarantined in St. Lucia after one passenger was diagnosed with the disease. It's the sort of news you can expect when parents stop vaccinating their children, which many did from the 1990s onward for fear that scientists were foisting remedies on them that were more dangerous than the diseases themselves.
As society has become ever more convenient, hygienic and wrapped in cling film, many hark back with dewy eyes to the natural and supposedly wholesome lifestyles of our ancestors in pre-industrial times. Besides the fear around vaccines, growing numbers of people put their faith in the organic movement, the anti-GM lobby and New Age philosophies. They have increasingly rejected the ability of science to improve our lives, placing an almost religious trust in the benevolence of Mother Nature instead.
Continue reading
People trust Mother Nature to keep us healthy, forgetting that evolution is brutal and uncaring.People trust Mother Nature to keep us healthy, forgetting that evolution is brutal and uncaring.
Measles cases in the U.S. have hit a 25-year high, with 78 new infections in the past week alone. In a sign of the times, a cruise ship with hundreds of Scientologists on board was quarantined in St. Lucia after one passenger was diagnosed with the disease. It's the sort of news you can expect when parents stop vaccinating their children, which many did from the 1990s onward for fear that scientists were foisting remedies on them that were more dangerous than the diseases themselves.
As society has become ever more convenient, hygienic and wrapped in cling film, many hark back with dewy eyes to the natural and supposedly wholesome lifestyles of our ancestors in pre-industrial times. Besides the fear around vaccines, growing numbers of people put their faith in the organic movement, the anti-GM lobby and New Age philosophies. They have increasingly rejected the ability of science to improve our lives, placing an almost religious trust in the benevolence of Mother Nature instead.
Continue reading
Thursday, 1 March 2018
Depression, schizophrenia, autism and other psychiatric disorders show common genetic link
a post by Derek Beres for the Big Think blog
In his book The Gene, journalist and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee borrows Richard Dawkins’s description of genes not as ‘blueprints’ but ‘recipes’ that specify processes inside of our bodies, calling them ‘formula for forms’. Our understanding of disease must now consider the most elementary of molecules, he continues. In order to wrap our heads around the nature of disease, scientists “must break the world into its constituent parts – genes, atoms, bytes – before making it whole again”.
One of our great strengths as humans is our ability to recognize patterns, to break down the whole into its parts to better understand how it became whole in the first place. In medicine, this has led to errant diagnoses like when the Greek physician Hippocrates identified the four humors – the notion that all disease stems from one of four bodily fluids (though in fairness, autopsies were taboo when the Greek physician lived). While some patterns are highly speculative, we’re getting better at recognizing ones that matter.
Continue reading but please remember that this is research. It could help in the development of potential treatments.
In his book The Gene, journalist and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee borrows Richard Dawkins’s description of genes not as ‘blueprints’ but ‘recipes’ that specify processes inside of our bodies, calling them ‘formula for forms’. Our understanding of disease must now consider the most elementary of molecules, he continues. In order to wrap our heads around the nature of disease, scientists “must break the world into its constituent parts – genes, atoms, bytes – before making it whole again”.
One of our great strengths as humans is our ability to recognize patterns, to break down the whole into its parts to better understand how it became whole in the first place. In medicine, this has led to errant diagnoses like when the Greek physician Hippocrates identified the four humors – the notion that all disease stems from one of four bodily fluids (though in fairness, autopsies were taboo when the Greek physician lived). While some patterns are highly speculative, we’re getting better at recognizing ones that matter.
Continue reading but please remember that this is research. It could help in the development of potential treatments.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Genome Island: A Virtual Science Environment in Second Life
an article by by Mary Anne Clark published in Innovate Volume 5 Issue 6 (August/September 2009)
Abstract
Mary Anne Clark describes the organisation and uses of Genome Island, a virtual laboratory complex constructed in Second Life. Genome Island was created for teaching genetics to university undergraduates but also provides a public space where anyone interested in genetics can spend a few minutes, or a few hours, interacting with genetic objects – from simple experiments with peas to the organisation of whole genomes. Each of the approximately four dozen activities available in the island's various areas includes background information, model objects with data sets, and suggestions for data analysis. The island also has a presentation theatre, an indoor conference setting, and separate meeting spaces suitable for small group conversations. Clark describes some of the activities available on the island, offers advice for their use, and discusses the results of a pilot project that identified some pedagogical and technical challenges arising in this virtual setting.
Abstract
Mary Anne Clark describes the organisation and uses of Genome Island, a virtual laboratory complex constructed in Second Life. Genome Island was created for teaching genetics to university undergraduates but also provides a public space where anyone interested in genetics can spend a few minutes, or a few hours, interacting with genetic objects – from simple experiments with peas to the organisation of whole genomes. Each of the approximately four dozen activities available in the island's various areas includes background information, model objects with data sets, and suggestions for data analysis. The island also has a presentation theatre, an indoor conference setting, and separate meeting spaces suitable for small group conversations. Clark describes some of the activities available on the island, offers advice for their use, and discusses the results of a pilot project that identified some pedagogical and technical challenges arising in this virtual setting.
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