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April 09, 2008

Fear in the genes

From Nature:

Fear If snakes strike terror in your toddler’s heart, he might still grow to be brave. A tendency toward fearfulness does have genetic underpinnings, but those shift several times as children become adults, a study has found. The worries of adolescents differ from those of young children — fear of the dark gives way to squeamishness about blood in a well-documented developmental progression. Now, psychiatrist Kenneth Kendler of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and his colleagues have found that the genetic factors that leave a person prone to fear also shift during development.

To tease apart the effect of genes and upbringing, the researchers tracked 2,490 Swedish twins as they aged from 8 to 20 years old, asking them to answer questions sent by mail. The twins were quizzed on whether they were afraid of 13 potentially terrifying phenomena, including lightning, dentists, spiders and heights. At every age a child was more likely to be fearful if their identical twin was too. Fraternal twins also shared a tendency towards fearfulness but the link was less strong, indicating a genetic component to fearfulness.

More here.

Posted by Azra Raza at 05:39 AM | Permalink

Comments

This is taking a startled look at the obvious.

However, as a precautionary measure, don't let Bob Spitzer and his cohorts of DSM-ETC read this, for they'll invent a new diagnostic category: "Metamorphosing developmental fears" 007-13 and the drug companies will come up with a new Serotonine reuptake inhibitor to "cure" it: "Phobisolv".

I'm not kidding!

Posted by: Felix E. F. Larocca MD | Apr 9, 2008 7:03:47 AM

I'm not laughing, but if they made it, I'd take it. Being phobic is not fun. Sadly, I doubt just an SSRI can help. I don't think we're that chemically advanced yet. Wish we were - popping a pill is a lot easier to contemplate than exposure therapy, the current best option.

Posted by: reader | Apr 17, 2008 2:36:24 PM

I fear the drug companies. I'm pharmaphobic.

Posted by: Jared | Apr 17, 2008 2:42:16 PM

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