ArticlePsychological medicine2020
Internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in middle age: genetic and environmental architecture and stability of symptoms over 15 to 20 years.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Continuity of Genetic Risk for Aggressive Behavior Across the Life-Course.Behavior genetics · 2021Pooled it
- The typology of common psychiatric disorders as depicted by genetic maps: a study based on Swedish population-based registers.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026Article
- Stability of Music Engagement Across Childhood, Adolescence, and Established Adulthood: A Longitudinal Twin and Adoption Study.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Where is mania in the meta-structure of psychopathology?Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Associations of polygenic scores and developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- The next generation of developmental psychopathology research: Including broader perspectives and becoming more precise.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- Evidence for strong genetic correlations among internalizing psychopathology and related self-reported measures using both genomic and twin/adoptive approaches.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2024Article
- Alzheimer's Disease Polygenic Scores Predict Changes in Episodic Memory and Executive Function Across 12 Years in Late Middle Age.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2023Article
- Exploring the possibility of parents' broad internalizing phenotype acting through passive gene-environment correlations on daughters' disordered eating.Development and psychopathology · 2022Article
- Conceptualizing traumatic stress and the structure of posttraumatic psychopathology through the lenses of RDoC and HiTOP.Clinical psychology review · 2022Review
- Validity and utility of Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): III. Emotional dysfunction superspectrum.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2022Article
- Mental health and music engagement: review, framework, and guidelines for future studies.Translational psychiatry · 2021Review
- How Well Does Subjective Cognitive Decline Correspond to Objectively Measured Cognitive Decline? Assessment of 10-12 Year Change.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2021Article
- Implications of Medical and Recreational Marijuana Laws for Neuroscience Research: a Review.Current behavioral neuroscience reports · 2020Article
- Functional connectome signature of general psychopathology in middle-aged and older adults: Evidence from multi-cohort, multi-ethnic analyses.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInternalizing and externalizing psychopathology factors explain much of the covariance among psychiatric conditions, especially at the level of genetic risk. However, few studies have examined internalizing and externalizing factors in middle-aged samples, especially their ability to predict later symptoms across midlife. The goals of the current study were (i) to quantify the genetic and environmental influences on internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in individuals in their early 40s, and (ii) examine the extent to which these genetic and environmental influences predict self-reported measures of internalizing and externalizing symptoms 15-20 years later.
method1484 male twins completed diagnostic interviews of psychopathology at mean age 41 and self-reported measures of anxiety, depression, substance use, and related variables at up to two time-points in late middle age (mean ages 56 and 62).
resultsStructural equation modeling of the diagnostic interviews confirmed that internalizing and externalizing factors accounted for most of the genetic variance in individual disorders, with substantial genetic (ra = 0.70) and environmental (re = 0.77) correlations between the factors. Internalizing psychopathology at age 41 was correlated with latent factors capturing anxiety, depression, and/or post-traumatic stress symptoms at ages 56 (r = 0.51) and 62 (r = 0.43). Externalizing psychopathology at age 41 was correlated r = 0.67 with a latent factor capturing aggression, tobacco use, and alcohol use at age 56. Stability of both factors was driven by genetic influences.
conclusionsThese findings demonstrate the considerable stability of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology symptoms across middle age, especially their genetic influences. Diagnostic interviews effectively predict self-reported symptoms and behaviors 15-20 years later.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.