Is There a Female Protective Effect Against Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder? Evidence From Two Representative Twin Samples

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Volumn 55, Issue 6, 2016, Pages 504-512.e2

  Taylor, Mark J ^a   Lichtenstein, Paul ^a   Larsson, Henrik ^a   Anckarsäter, Henrik ^b   Greven, Corina U ^c   Ronald, Angelica ^d  

^a KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE   (Sweden)

^b UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG   (Sweden)

^c RADBOUD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER   (Netherlands)

^d UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

ADHD; genetics; sex differences; twin study

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER; CONTROLLED STUDY; ENGLAND; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; MONOZYGOTIC TWINS; PRIORITY JOURNAL; RECURRENCE RISK; STATISTICS; SWEDEN; WALES; CHILD; PROTECTION; SEX DIFFERENCE; TWINS;

ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER WITH HYPERACTIVITY; CHILD; DISEASES IN TWINS; ENGLAND; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; PROTECTIVE FACTORS; SEX FACTORS; SWEDEN; WALES;

EID: 84991222355     PISSN: 08908567     EISSN: 15275418     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2016.04.004     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. 1 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed., 2013, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.
2. 2 Willcutt, E.G., The prevalence of DSM-IV attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analytic review. Neurotherapeutics 9 (2012), 490–499.
3. 3 Nøvik, T.S., Hervas, A., Ralston, S.J., et al. Influence of gender on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Europe—ADORE. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 15:Suppl 1 (2006), 15–24.
4. 4 Catalá-López, F., Peiró, S., Ridao, M., Sanfélix-Gimeno, G., Gènova-Maleras, R., Catalá, M.A., Prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among children and adolescents in Spain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies. BMC Psychiatry, 12, 2012, 168.
5. 5 Levy, F., Hay, D.A., McStephen, M., Wood, C., Waldman, I., Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a category or a continuum? Genetic analysis of a large-scale twin study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36 (1997), 737–744.
6. 6 Sherman, D.K., Iacono, W.G., McGue, M.K., Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder dimensions: a twin study of inattention and impulsivity-hyperactivity. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 36 (1997), 745–753.
7. 7 Polderman, T.J., Derks, E.M., Hudziak, J.J., Verhulst, F.C., Posthuma, D., Boomsma, D.I., Across the continuum of attention skills: a twin study of the SWAN ADHD rating scale. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 48 (2007), 1080–1087.
8. 8 Greven, C.U., Rijsdijk, F.V., Plomin, R., A twin study of ADHD symptoms in early adolescence: hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattention show substantial genetic overlap but also genetic specificity. J Abnorm Child Psychol 39 (2011), 265–275.
9. 9 Larsson, H., Anckarsäter, H., Råstam, M., Chang, Z., Lichtenstein, P., Childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as an extreme of a continuous trait: a quantitative genetic study of 8,500 twin pairs. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 53 (2012), 73–80.
10. 10 Skuse, D.H., Imprinting, the X-chromosome, and the male brain: explaining sex differences in the liability to autism. Pediatr Res 47 (2000), 9–16.
11. 11 Jacquemont, S., Coe, B.P., Hersch, M., et al. A higher mutational burden in females supports a ‘female protective model’ in neurodevelopmental disorders. Am J Hum Genet 94 (2014), 415–425.
12. 12 Robinson, E.B., Lichtenstein, P., Anckarsäter, H., Happé, F., Ronald, A., Examining and interpreting the female protective effect against autistic behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110 (2013), 5258–5262.
13. 13 Eriksson, J.M., Lundström, S., Lichtenstein, P., Bejerot, S., Eriksson, E., Effect of cotwin gender on neurodevelopmental symptoms: a twin register study. Mol Autism, 7, 2016, 8.
14. 14 Rhee, S.H., Waldman, I.D., Etiology of sex differences in the prevalence of ADHD: an examination of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 127B (2004), 60–64.
15. 15 Anckarsäter, H., Lundström, S., Kollberg, L., et al. The Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS). Twin Res Hum Genet 14 (2011), 495–508.
16. 16 Haworth, C.M., Davis, O.S., Plomin, R., Twins Early Development Study (TEDS): a genetically sensitive investigation of cognitive and behavioral development from childhood to young adulthood. Twin Res Hum Gent 16 (2013), 117–125.
17. 17 Hansson, S.L., Svanström Röjvall, A., Råstam, M., Gillberg, C., Gillberg, C., Anckarsäter, H., Psychiatric telephone interview with parents for screening of childhood autism-tics, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other comorbidities (A-TAC): preliminary reliability and validity. Br J Psychiatry 187 (2005), 262–267.
18. 18 Larson, T., Anckarsäter, H., Gillberg, C., et al. The autism-tics, AD/HD and other comorbidities inventory (A-TAC): further validation of a telephone interview for epidemiological research. BMC Psychiatry, 10, 2010, 1.
19. 19 Conners, C.K., Sitarenios, G., Parker, J.D., Epstein, J.N., The revised Conners’ Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-R): factor structure, reliability, and criterion validity. J Abnorm Child Psychol 26 (1998), 257–268.
20. 20 Cohen, J., Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. 1988, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.
21. 21 R Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. 2015, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna.
22. 22 Ebejer, J.L., Duffy, D.L., van der Werf, J., et al. Genome-wide association study of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity measured as quantitative traits. Twin Res Hum Genet 16 (2013), 560–574.
23. 23 Zuk, O., Schaffner, S.F., Samocha, K., et al. Searching for missing heritability: designing rare variant association studies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 111, 2014 455-436.
24. 24 Baron-Cohen, S., Scott, F.J., Allison, C., et al. Prevalence of autism-spectrum conditions: UK school-based population study. Br J Psychiatry 194 (2009), 500–509.
25. 25 Werling, D.M., Geschwind, D.H., Recurrence rates provide evidence for sex-differential, familial genetic liability for autism spectrum disorders in multiplex families and twins. Mol Autism, 6, 2015, 27.
26. 26 Martin, J., Hamshere, M.L., Stergiakouli, E., O'Donovan, M.C., Thapar, A., Genetic risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder contributes to neurodevelopmental traits in the general population. Biol Psychiatry 76 (2014), 664–671.
27. 27 Wray, N.R., Lee, S.H., Mehta, D., Vinkhuyzen, A.A., Dudbridge, F., Middeldorp, C.M., Polygenic methods and their application to psychiatric traits. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 55 (2014), 1068–1087.
28. 28 Pettersson, E., Sjölander, A., Almqvist, C., et al. Birth weight as an independent predictor of ADHD symptoms: a within-twin pair analysis. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 56 (2015), 453–459.
29. 29 Hultman, C.M., Torrång, A., Tuvblad, C., Cnattingius, S., Larsson, J.O., Lichtenstein, P., Birth weight and attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms in childhood and early adolescence: a prospective Swedish twin study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 46 (2007), 370–377.
30. 30 Rucklidge, J.J., Gender differences in ADHD: implications for psychosocial treatment. Expert Rev Neurother 8 (2008), 643–655.
31. 31 Williamson, D., Johnston, C., Gender differences in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a narrative review. Clin Psychol Rev 40 (2015), 15–27.
32. 32 Neale, M.C., Maes, H.H.M., Methodology for Genetic Studies of Twins and Families. 2004, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
33. 33 Ronald, A., Simonoff, E., Kuntsi, J., Asherson, P., Plomin, R., Evidence for overlapping genetic influences on autistic and ADHD behaviours in a community twin sample. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 49 (2008), 535–542.
34. 34 Moilanen, I., Linna, S., Ebeling, H., et al. Are twins’ behavioural/emotional problems different from singletons?. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 8:Suppl 4 (1999), 62–67.
35. 35 Dalsgaard, S., Mortensen, P.B., Frydenberg, M., Thomsen, P.H., Conduct problems, gender and adult psychiatric outcome of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Br J Psychiatry 181 (2001), 416–421.
36. 36 Pettersson, E., Anckarsäter, H., Gillberg, C., Lichtenstein, P., Different neurodevelopmental symptoms have a common genetic etiology. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 54 (2013), 1356–1365.
37. 37 Pettersson, E., Larsson, H., Lichtenstein, P., Common psychiatric disorders share the same genetic origin: a multivariate sibling study of the Swedish population. [Epub ahead of print] Mol Psychiatry, 2015 Aug 25 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mp.2015.116.