Depression and Insomnia May Share a Genetic Link
Mood disorders -- such as anxiety and depression -- may share a common genetic link with insomnia, according to a recent study of children and adolescents.
Researchers examined 1,442 twin pairs and found that about one third of those diagnosed with depression or anxiety also had insomnia. The twins studied were aged eight to 17. Only 1.3% of the sample had depression, but 18% had symptoms of anxiety. Among those with either diagnosis, 32.4% had insomnia compared to 16.5% of adolescents with insomnia who were free of these mood disorders.
If one of the children in a monozygotic, or identical, twin pair had insomnia, his or her twin was more likely to have it as well. This study adds to the evidence that children diagnosed with anxiety or depression should also be screened for insomnia.
Source:Gehrman P, et al. "Heritability of insomnia in adolescents: How much is just depression and anxiety?" SLEEP. 2009; 32: A264.
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Comments
I agree with you Brandon: as the study you presented shows, there is only twice as many insomnia patients among those who have mood disorder. It is not alarming, compare to the country average of 20 – 40%. I am wondering if the result of that study hasn’t been assessed accurately enough. Based on my extensive experience in psychological testing, it is very difficult to make right conclusion, because we are all biased, mostly by our own ideas. Remember that old “scientific experiment” whereby a cat was given a cup of a regular gasoline, instead of a glass of milk. The story says that the cat started running around the lab like crazy and, as anyone can expect, fell down dead. The conclusion “researches” had came up with: “The cat ran out of gas”!