Summary: A new study reports people with partners who suffer from depression are more likely to suffer from chronic pain.
Source: University of Edinburgh.
Partners of people with depression are more likely to suffer from chronic pain, research has found..
The study shows that the two conditions share common causes – some of which are genetic whilst other causes originate from the environment that partners share.
Experts say their findings shed new light on the illnesses and could one day help to develop better diagnostic tests and treatments.
Researchers led by the University of Edinburgh studied information from more than 100,000 people taking part in large nationwide health studies.
The team analysed people’s genetic background as well as details about their experiences of pain and depression.
Their findings revealed that chronic pain is caused partly by someone’s genetic make-up and partly by as yet unidentified risk factors that are shared jointly by partners or spouses.
They also identified significant overlaps between the risk factors for chronic pain and depression.
Chronic pain is a common cause of disability but little is known about what causes it. Scientists say the research will bring a new understanding of why some people suffer from the condition and not others.
The research used data from the Generation Scotland and UK Biobank projects – major studies investigating genetic links to health conditions.
Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow collaborated on the project. The study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, was funded by Wellcome.
Professor Andrew McIntosh, Chair of Biological Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, said: “We hope our research will encourage people to think about the relationship between chronic pain and depression and whether physical and mental illnesses are as separate as some believe.”
Source: Jen Middleton – University of Edinburgh
Image Source: This NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Genetic and Environmental Risk for Chronic Pain and the Contribution of Risk Variants for Major Depressive Disorder: A Family-Based Mixed-Model Analysis” by Andrew M. McIntosh, Lynsey S. Hall, Yanni Zeng, Mark J. Adams, Jude Gibson, Eleanor Wigmore, Saskia P. Hagenaars, Gail Davies, Ana Maria Fernandez-Pujals, Archie I. Campbell, Toni-Kim Clarke, Caroline Hayward, Chris S. Haley, David J. Porteous, Ian J. Deary, Daniel J. Smith, Barbara I. Nicholl, David A. Hinds, Amy V. Jones, Serena Scollen, Weihua Meng, Blair H. Smith, and Lynne J. Hocking in PLOS Medicine. Published online August 16 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002090
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]University of Edinburgh. “Chronic Pain Linked to Partners of People With Depression.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 16 August 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/depression-chronic-pain-4859/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]University of Edinburgh. (2016, August 16). Chronic Pain Linked to Partners of People With Depression. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved August 16, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/depression-chronic-pain-4859/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]University of Edinburgh. “Chronic Pain Linked to Partners of People With Depression.” https://neurosciencenews.com/depression-chronic-pain-4859/ (accessed August 16, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]
Abstract
Genetic and Environmental Risk for Chronic Pain and the Contribution of Risk Variants for Major Depressive Disorder: A Family-Based Mixed-Model Analysis
Background
Chronic pain is highly prevalent and a significant source of disability, yet its genetic and environmental risk factors are poorly understood. Its relationship with major depressive disorder (MDD) is of particular importance. We sought to test the contribution of genetic factors and shared and unique environment to risk of chronic pain and its correlation with MDD in Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS). We then sought to replicate any significant findings in the United Kingdom Biobank study.
Methods and Findings
Using family-based mixed-model analyses, we examined the contribution of genetics and shared family environment to chronic pain by spouse, sibling, and household relationships. These analyses were conducted in GS:SFHS (n = 23,960), a family- and population-based study of individuals recruited from the Scottish population through their general practitioners. We then examined and partitioned the correlation between chronic pain and MDD and estimated the contribution of genetic factors and shared environment in GS:SFHS. Finally, we used data from two independent genome-wide association studies to test whether chronic pain has a polygenic architecture and examine whether genomic risk of psychiatric disorder predicted chronic pain and whether genomic risk of chronic pain predicted MDD. These analyses were conducted in GS:SFHS and repeated in UK Biobank, a study of 500,000 from the UK population, of whom 112,151 had genotyping and phenotypic data. Chronic pain is a moderately heritable trait (heritability = 38.4%, 95% CI 33.6% to 43.9%) that is significantly concordant in spouses (variance explained 18.7%, 95% CI 9.5% to 25.1%). Chronic pain is positively correlated with depression (ρ = 0.13, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.15, p = 2.72×10-68) and shows a tendency to cluster within families for genetic reasons (genetic correlation = 0.51, 95%CI 0.40 to 0.62, p = 8.24×10-19). Polygenic risk profiles for pain, generated using independent GWAS data, were associated with chronic pain in both GS:SFHS (maximum β = 6.18×10-2, 95% CI 2.84 x10-2 to 9.35 x10-2, p = 4.3×10-4) and UK Biobank (maximum β = 5.68 x 10−2, 95% CI 4.70×10-2 to 6.65×10-2, p < 3x10-4). Genomic risk of MDD is also significantly associated with chronic pain in both GS:SFHS (maximum β = 6.62x10-2, 95% CI 2.82 x10-2 to 9.76 x10-2, p = 4.3x10-4) and UK Biobank (maximum β = 2.56x10-2, 95% CI 1.62x10-2 to 3.63x10-2, p < 3x10-4). Limitations of the current study include the possibility that spouse effects may be due to assortative mating and the relatively small polygenic risk score effect sizes.
Conclusions
Genetic factors, as well as chronic pain in a partner or spouse, contribute substantially to the risk of chronic pain for an individual. Chronic pain is genetically correlated with MDD, has a polygenic architecture, and is associated with polygenic risk of MDD.
“Genetic and Environmental Risk for Chronic Pain and the Contribution of Risk Variants for Major Depressive Disorder: A Family-Based Mixed-Model Analysis” by Andrew M. McIntosh, Lynsey S. Hall, Yanni Zeng, Mark J. Adams, Jude Gibson, Eleanor Wigmore, Saskia P. Hagenaars, Gail Davies, Ana Maria Fernandez-Pujals, Archie I. Campbell, Toni-Kim Clarke, Caroline Hayward, Chris S. Haley, David J. Porteous, Ian J. Deary, Daniel J. Smith, Barbara I. Nicholl, David A. Hinds, Amy V. Jones, Serena Scollen, Weihua Meng, Blair H. Smith, and Lynne J. Hocking in PLOS Medicine. Published online August 16 2016 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002090
