Tamara Thomas

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Genes that increase the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder are stronger in females than males, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Previous studies have shown that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is moderately inheritable, and heritability tends to be higher in females than males. However, there has been no formal testing to confirm sex differences in PTSD.  
For this study, Dr. Ananda Amstadter from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and colleagues sought to estimate the contributions of genes and environment to PTSD. They also looked for sex differences in PTSD risk among siblings and twins.
The researchers analyzed data from the Swedish National Registries. Overall, the study included about 16242 pairs of twins and 376093 pairs of full siblings within a 2-year range of each other.
The study revealed that PTSD was moderately inheritable, just as previous studies have shown. They also found that females were more likely to inherit the gene that increases the risk of PTSD than men (35.4% vs 28.6%). 
According to the researchers, &#8220;the sets of genes contributing to PTSD for females and males are highly correlated; there are some unique effects (i.e., evidence of a qualitative sex difference).&#8221;
Dr.  Amstadter and her teams also found that unique environmental effects contributed to PTSD.  According to their findings, unique environmental differences accounted for almost 65% of the differences in PTSD risk. However, they found no association between shared or special twin environments and PTSD risk.
&#8220;Although this is the first formal test of a quantitative sex effect for PTSD, this finding of greater genetic influence among females compared with males is consistent with the overall pattern of findings across twin studies,&#8221; the authors write.
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Source: <a href="https://www.healthday.com/healthpro-news/mental-health/females-have-higher-genetic-risk-for-ptsd">HealthDay</a>
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Journal:  <a href="https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230104">American Journal of Psychiatry</a>

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Studies have shown that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is moderately inheritable, and heritability tends to be higher in females than males.

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