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The Evidence for Genetic Components in the Neuroses: A Review

The Evidence for Genetic Components in the Neuroses: A Review Abstract Evidence from studies of families and twins presented by several investigators suggests that some neuroses, such as anxiety neurosis, have an important genetic component whereas others, such as hysterical neurosis, may have none or a relatively unimportant genetic component. The heritability takes the form of a genetic predisposition that culminates in clinical neurotic symptoms only when the person is subjected to the proper set of environmental stresses. Psychological test studies show significant heritabilities of various personality traits, including "neurotic tendencies," and animal studies show that rats can be selected for "emotionality" or "nonemotionality." Evidence suggests the hypothesis that the genetic basis is complex polygenic system in which some genetic loci are additive while other loci function via various genetic mechanisms. References 1. Slater E, Slater P: A heuristic theory of neurosis . J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 7:49-55, 1944.Crossref 2. Slater E: The neurotic constitution: A statistical study of two thousand neurotic soldiers . J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 6:1-16, 1943.Crossref 3. Brown FW: Heredity in the psychoneurosis . Proc R Soc Med 35:785-790, 1942. 4. Slater E, Shields J: Genetical aspects of anxiety , in Lader MH (ed): Studies in Anxiety . (Br J Psychiatry, Special Publication No. 3). Ashford, Kent, England, Headley Brothers Ltd, 1969. 5. McInnes RG: Observations on heredity in neurosis . Proc R Soc Med 30:895-904, 1937. 6. Cohen ME: The high familial prevalence of neuro-circulatory-asthenia (anxiety neurosis, effort syndrome) . Am J Hum Genet 3:126-158, 1951. 7. Broadhurst PL: The biometrical analysis of behavioral inheritance . Sci Prog Oxford 55:123-139, 1967. 8. Hall CS: The inheritance of emotionality . Sigma Xi Quart 26:17-27, 1938. 9. Broadhurst PL, Bignami G: Correlative effects of psychogenetic selection: A study of the Roman high and low avoidance strains of rats . Behav Res Ther 2:273-280, 1965.Crossref 10. DeFries JC, Hegmann JP: Genetic analysis of open-field behavior , in Lindzey G, Thiessen DD (eds): Contributions to Behavior-Genetic Analysis. The Mouse as a Prototype . New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969. 11. Coppen A, Cowie E, Slater E: Familial aspects of "neuroticism" and "extraversion." Br J Psychiatry 111:70-83, 1965.Crossref 12. Rosenberg CM: Familial aspects of obsessional neurosis . Br J Psychiatry 113:405-413, 1967.Crossref 13. Vandenberg SG: The hereditary abilities study: Hereditary components in a psychological test battery . Am J Hum Genet 14:220-237, 1962. 14. Gottesman II: Genetic variance in adaptive personality traits . J Child Psychol Psychiatry 7:199-208, 1966.Crossref 15. Owen DR, Sines JO: Heritability of personality in children . Behav Genet 1:235-248, 1970.Crossref 16. Gottesman II: The psychogenetics of personality, PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota. Ann Arbor, Mich, University Microfilms, No. 60-3517, 1960. 17. Vandenberg SG: Hereditary factors in normal personality traits (as measured by inventories) , in J Wortis (ed): Recent Advances in Biological Psychiatry , vol 9. New York, Plenum Press, 1967, pp 65-104. 18. Vandenberg SG, Stafford RE, Brown AM: The Louisville twin study , in Vandenberg SG (ed): Progress in Human Behavior Genetics . Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1968, pp 153-204. 19. Eysenck HJ: The inheritance of extraversion-introversion . Acta Psychol (Amst) 12:95-110, 1956.Crossref 20. Scarr S: The inheritance of sociability, abstracted . Am Psychol 20:524, 1965. 21. Scarr S: Social introversion-extraversion as a heritable response . Child Dev 40:823-832, 1969.Crossref 22. Freedman D: An ethological approach to the genetical study of human behavior , in Vandenberg SG (ed): Methods and Goals in Human Behavior Genetics . New York, Academic Press, 1965, pp 141-161. 23. Young JPR, Fenton GW, Lader MH: The inheritance of neurotic traits: A twin study of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire . Br J Psychiatry 119:393-398, 1971.Crossref 24. Eysenck HJ: Neurosis and intelligence . Lancet 2:362-363, 1943.Crossref 25. Eysenck HJ, Prell DB: The inheritance of neuroticism: An experimental study . J Ment Sci 97:441-465, 1951. 26. Rosenthal D: Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behavior . New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co Inc, 1970. 27. Gottesman II: Differential inheritance of the psychoneurosis . Eugenics Quart 9:223-227, 1962. 28. Slater E: The thirty-fifth Maudsley lecture: "Hysteria 311." J Ment Sci 107:359-381, 1961. 29. Slater E, Glithero E: A follow-up of patients diagnosed as suffering from "hysteria." J Psychosom Res 9:9-13, 1965.Crossref 30. Arkonac O, Guze SB: A family study of hysteria . N Engl J Med 268:239-242, 1963.Crossref 31. Woerner PI, Guze SB: A family and marital study of hysteria . Br J Psychiatry 114:161-168, 1968.Crossref 32. Inouye E: Similar and dissimilar manifestations of obsessive-compulsive neurosis in monozygotic twins . Am J Psychiatry 121:1171-1175, 1965. 33. Shields J: Heredity and psychological abnormality , in Eysenck HJ (ed): Handbook of Abnormal Psychology , ed 2. London, Pitman Medical, 1973. 34. Slater E: Psychotic and neurotic illnesses in twins . Spec Rep Ser Med Res Council (Lond) . No. 278. London, HMSO, 1953. 35. Ihda S: A study of neurosis by twin method . Psychiat Neurol Jap 63:681-892, 1960. 36. Braconi L: Le psiconevrosi e le psicosi nei gemelli . Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma) 10:100-136, 1961. 37. Tienari P: Psychiatric illnesses in identical twins . Acta Psychiatr Scand ( (suppl) ) 171, 1963. 38. Parker N: Twins: A psychiatric study of a neurotic group . Med J Aust ii:735-742, 1964. 39. Shields J, Slater E: La similarité du diagnostic chez les jumeaux et le problème de la spécificité biologique dans les névroses et les troubles de la persounalité . Evol Psychiatr (Paris) 31:441-451, 1966. 40. Pollin W, et al: Psychopathology in 15,909 pairs of veteran twins: Evidence for a genetic factor in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and its relative absence in psychoneurosis . Am J Psychiatry 126:43-55, 1969. 41. Gottesman II, Shields J: Schizophrenia and genetics: A twin study vantage point . New York, Academic Press, 1972. 42. Pitts FN, McClure JN: Lactate metabolism in anxiety neurosis . N Engl J Med 277:1329-1336, 1967.Crossref 43. Cohen ME, White PD: Life situations, emotions, and neurocirculatory asthenia (anxiety neurosis, neurasthenia, effort syndrome) . A Res Nerv & Ment Dis Proc 29:832-869, 1950. 44. Jones M, Mellersh V: Comparison of exercise response in anxiety states and normal controls . Psychosom Med 8:180-187, 1946. 45. Linko E: Lactic acid response to muscular exercise in neurocirculatory asthenia . Ann Med Int Fenniae 39:161-176, 1950. 46. Holmgren A, Strom G: Blood lactate concentration relation to absolute and relative work load in normal men, and in mitral stenosis, atrial septal defect and basoregulatory asthenia . Acta Med Scand 163:185-193, 1959. 47. Grosz HJ, Farmer BB: Pitts' and McClure's lactate-anxiety study revisited . Br J Psychiatry 120:415-418, 1972. 48. Slater E, Woodside M: Assortative mating , in Patterns of Marriage . London, Cassell, 1951, pp 127-137. 49. Shields J, Gottesman II (eds), Man, Mind, and Heredity . Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 1971). 50. Lewis A: Fertility and mental illness . Eugenics Review . 50:91-106, 1958. 51. Odegard O: Marriage and mental disease: A study in social psychopathology . Br J Psychiatry 92:35-59, 1946. 52. Odegard, O: Marriage and mental health . Acta Psychiat et Neurol Scand (suppl 80) , pp 153-161, 1952. 53. Odegard O: New data on marriage and mental disease: The incidence of psychoses in the widowed and the divorced . Br J Psychiatry 99:778-785, 1953. 54. Slater E, Hare EH, Price JS: Marriage and fertility of psychiatry patients compared with national data . Soc Biol 18( (suppl) ):S60-S73, 1971. 55. Reed SC: Discussion: Mental illness and reproduction . Soc Biol 18( (suppl) ):S95-S102, 1971. 56. Fuller JL, Thompson WR: Behavior Genetics . New York, Wiley, 1960. 57. Gottesman II: A sampler of human behavior genetics , in Dobzhansky T, Hecht MK, Steere WC, (eds): Evolutionary Biology , vol 2. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Archives of General Psychiatry American Medical Association

The Evidence for Genetic Components in the Neuroses: A Review

Archives of General Psychiatry , Volume 29 (1) – Jul 1, 1973

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References (66)

Publisher
American Medical Association
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN
0003-990X
eISSN
1598-3636
DOI
10.1001/archpsyc.1973.04200010080014
Publisher site
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Abstract

Abstract Evidence from studies of families and twins presented by several investigators suggests that some neuroses, such as anxiety neurosis, have an important genetic component whereas others, such as hysterical neurosis, may have none or a relatively unimportant genetic component. The heritability takes the form of a genetic predisposition that culminates in clinical neurotic symptoms only when the person is subjected to the proper set of environmental stresses. Psychological test studies show significant heritabilities of various personality traits, including "neurotic tendencies," and animal studies show that rats can be selected for "emotionality" or "nonemotionality." Evidence suggests the hypothesis that the genetic basis is complex polygenic system in which some genetic loci are additive while other loci function via various genetic mechanisms. References 1. Slater E, Slater P: A heuristic theory of neurosis . J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 7:49-55, 1944.Crossref 2. Slater E: The neurotic constitution: A statistical study of two thousand neurotic soldiers . J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 6:1-16, 1943.Crossref 3. Brown FW: Heredity in the psychoneurosis . Proc R Soc Med 35:785-790, 1942. 4. Slater E, Shields J: Genetical aspects of anxiety , in Lader MH (ed): Studies in Anxiety . (Br J Psychiatry, Special Publication No. 3). Ashford, Kent, England, Headley Brothers Ltd, 1969. 5. McInnes RG: Observations on heredity in neurosis . Proc R Soc Med 30:895-904, 1937. 6. Cohen ME: The high familial prevalence of neuro-circulatory-asthenia (anxiety neurosis, effort syndrome) . Am J Hum Genet 3:126-158, 1951. 7. Broadhurst PL: The biometrical analysis of behavioral inheritance . Sci Prog Oxford 55:123-139, 1967. 8. Hall CS: The inheritance of emotionality . Sigma Xi Quart 26:17-27, 1938. 9. Broadhurst PL, Bignami G: Correlative effects of psychogenetic selection: A study of the Roman high and low avoidance strains of rats . Behav Res Ther 2:273-280, 1965.Crossref 10. DeFries JC, Hegmann JP: Genetic analysis of open-field behavior , in Lindzey G, Thiessen DD (eds): Contributions to Behavior-Genetic Analysis. The Mouse as a Prototype . New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969. 11. Coppen A, Cowie E, Slater E: Familial aspects of "neuroticism" and "extraversion." Br J Psychiatry 111:70-83, 1965.Crossref 12. Rosenberg CM: Familial aspects of obsessional neurosis . Br J Psychiatry 113:405-413, 1967.Crossref 13. Vandenberg SG: The hereditary abilities study: Hereditary components in a psychological test battery . Am J Hum Genet 14:220-237, 1962. 14. Gottesman II: Genetic variance in adaptive personality traits . J Child Psychol Psychiatry 7:199-208, 1966.Crossref 15. Owen DR, Sines JO: Heritability of personality in children . Behav Genet 1:235-248, 1970.Crossref 16. Gottesman II: The psychogenetics of personality, PhD dissertation, University of Minnesota. Ann Arbor, Mich, University Microfilms, No. 60-3517, 1960. 17. Vandenberg SG: Hereditary factors in normal personality traits (as measured by inventories) , in J Wortis (ed): Recent Advances in Biological Psychiatry , vol 9. New York, Plenum Press, 1967, pp 65-104. 18. Vandenberg SG, Stafford RE, Brown AM: The Louisville twin study , in Vandenberg SG (ed): Progress in Human Behavior Genetics . Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1968, pp 153-204. 19. Eysenck HJ: The inheritance of extraversion-introversion . Acta Psychol (Amst) 12:95-110, 1956.Crossref 20. Scarr S: The inheritance of sociability, abstracted . Am Psychol 20:524, 1965. 21. Scarr S: Social introversion-extraversion as a heritable response . Child Dev 40:823-832, 1969.Crossref 22. Freedman D: An ethological approach to the genetical study of human behavior , in Vandenberg SG (ed): Methods and Goals in Human Behavior Genetics . New York, Academic Press, 1965, pp 141-161. 23. Young JPR, Fenton GW, Lader MH: The inheritance of neurotic traits: A twin study of the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire . Br J Psychiatry 119:393-398, 1971.Crossref 24. Eysenck HJ: Neurosis and intelligence . Lancet 2:362-363, 1943.Crossref 25. Eysenck HJ, Prell DB: The inheritance of neuroticism: An experimental study . J Ment Sci 97:441-465, 1951. 26. Rosenthal D: Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behavior . New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co Inc, 1970. 27. Gottesman II: Differential inheritance of the psychoneurosis . Eugenics Quart 9:223-227, 1962. 28. Slater E: The thirty-fifth Maudsley lecture: "Hysteria 311." J Ment Sci 107:359-381, 1961. 29. Slater E, Glithero E: A follow-up of patients diagnosed as suffering from "hysteria." J Psychosom Res 9:9-13, 1965.Crossref 30. Arkonac O, Guze SB: A family study of hysteria . N Engl J Med 268:239-242, 1963.Crossref 31. Woerner PI, Guze SB: A family and marital study of hysteria . Br J Psychiatry 114:161-168, 1968.Crossref 32. Inouye E: Similar and dissimilar manifestations of obsessive-compulsive neurosis in monozygotic twins . Am J Psychiatry 121:1171-1175, 1965. 33. Shields J: Heredity and psychological abnormality , in Eysenck HJ (ed): Handbook of Abnormal Psychology , ed 2. London, Pitman Medical, 1973. 34. Slater E: Psychotic and neurotic illnesses in twins . Spec Rep Ser Med Res Council (Lond) . No. 278. London, HMSO, 1953. 35. Ihda S: A study of neurosis by twin method . Psychiat Neurol Jap 63:681-892, 1960. 36. Braconi L: Le psiconevrosi e le psicosi nei gemelli . Acta Genet Med Gemellol (Roma) 10:100-136, 1961. 37. Tienari P: Psychiatric illnesses in identical twins . Acta Psychiatr Scand ( (suppl) ) 171, 1963. 38. Parker N: Twins: A psychiatric study of a neurotic group . Med J Aust ii:735-742, 1964. 39. Shields J, Slater E: La similarité du diagnostic chez les jumeaux et le problème de la spécificité biologique dans les névroses et les troubles de la persounalité . Evol Psychiatr (Paris) 31:441-451, 1966. 40. Pollin W, et al: Psychopathology in 15,909 pairs of veteran twins: Evidence for a genetic factor in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and its relative absence in psychoneurosis . Am J Psychiatry 126:43-55, 1969. 41. Gottesman II, Shields J: Schizophrenia and genetics: A twin study vantage point . New York, Academic Press, 1972. 42. Pitts FN, McClure JN: Lactate metabolism in anxiety neurosis . N Engl J Med 277:1329-1336, 1967.Crossref 43. Cohen ME, White PD: Life situations, emotions, and neurocirculatory asthenia (anxiety neurosis, neurasthenia, effort syndrome) . A Res Nerv & Ment Dis Proc 29:832-869, 1950. 44. Jones M, Mellersh V: Comparison of exercise response in anxiety states and normal controls . Psychosom Med 8:180-187, 1946. 45. Linko E: Lactic acid response to muscular exercise in neurocirculatory asthenia . Ann Med Int Fenniae 39:161-176, 1950. 46. Holmgren A, Strom G: Blood lactate concentration relation to absolute and relative work load in normal men, and in mitral stenosis, atrial septal defect and basoregulatory asthenia . Acta Med Scand 163:185-193, 1959. 47. Grosz HJ, Farmer BB: Pitts' and McClure's lactate-anxiety study revisited . Br J Psychiatry 120:415-418, 1972. 48. Slater E, Woodside M: Assortative mating , in Patterns of Marriage . London, Cassell, 1951, pp 127-137. 49. Shields J, Gottesman II (eds), Man, Mind, and Heredity . Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, 1971). 50. Lewis A: Fertility and mental illness . Eugenics Review . 50:91-106, 1958. 51. Odegard O: Marriage and mental disease: A study in social psychopathology . Br J Psychiatry 92:35-59, 1946. 52. Odegard, O: Marriage and mental health . Acta Psychiat et Neurol Scand (suppl 80) , pp 153-161, 1952. 53. Odegard O: New data on marriage and mental disease: The incidence of psychoses in the widowed and the divorced . Br J Psychiatry 99:778-785, 1953. 54. Slater E, Hare EH, Price JS: Marriage and fertility of psychiatry patients compared with national data . Soc Biol 18( (suppl) ):S60-S73, 1971. 55. Reed SC: Discussion: Mental illness and reproduction . Soc Biol 18( (suppl) ):S95-S102, 1971. 56. Fuller JL, Thompson WR: Behavior Genetics . New York, Wiley, 1960. 57. Gottesman II: A sampler of human behavior genetics , in Dobzhansky T, Hecht MK, Steere WC, (eds): Evolutionary Biology , vol 2. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968.

Journal

Archives of General PsychiatryAmerican Medical Association

Published: Jul 1, 1973

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