Family Studies for GAD

Most family and twin studies suggest a clear difference between PD and GAD. Genetic factors are more significant in PD. In GAD, the environmental factors seem to play a dominant role. Cloninger et al. found that a relatively high percentage of relatives of PD patients suffered from panic attacks. The relatives of patients suffering from another anxious disorders did not show panic attacks. Crowe et al. compared the prevalence of panic attacks in PD patients’ families and in control families. They found a higher prevalence of panic attacks in PD patients’ families than in control families. A twin study carried out by Torgensen, using DSM-III criteria, showed that PD rate was higher in monozygotic than in dizygotic twins. No relationship was found with GADin any of the monozygotic twins suffering from PD. Thus, PD seems to be influenced by hereditary factors. GAD did not seem to be influenced by these factors.

This study also strongly suggests that GAD could be related to life events during early childhood. Noyes et al. showed that the frequency of GAD was higher among first-degree relatives of probands with GAD than among the relatives of control subjects, but it was not higher among relatives of probands with PD. On the other hand, the frequency of PD was higher among relatives of probands with panic disorder than among control relatives, and was not higher among relatives of GAD probands. In another study, Noyes et al.compared GAD patients with PD patients. The GAD patients had more often positive family histories of GAD than PD patients. On the other hand, PD patients had more often positive family histories of PD than subjects with GAD. The authors concluded that GAD patients were different from PD patients.

In general, the family studies support a distinction between GAD and PD. Strong arguments do exist to isolate a diathesis leading to the development of PD. However, in the case of GAD, the result seems to stress the importance of environmental factors.

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