The RISK group: Risky: Interconnect Signatures of Knowing in advance.
- Previous findings from both a cross sectional and a follow-up study of twins at high and low familial risk for affective disorders respectively showed that
- familial risk,
- subclinical anxiety and depressive symptoms and higher neuroticism scores
- impaired stress tolerance
- discrete cognitive dysfunction
are predictive of later illness onset
The two biological peripheral markers:
- cortisol levels
- Brain Derived Neurothropic factor (BDNF) levels
were not found to be predictive of later illness onset.
Thus, having a first-degree relative with affective disorder matters and illustrates that high-risk studies are extremely informative. The future aim is therefore an extension this research aiming to map individual risk profiles to improve early treatment and prevention.