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Preschool children without 7-repeat DRD4 gene more likely to develop disorganized attachment style.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:The current paper aimed to explore the effects of birth weight and the 7-repeat allele in Exon III of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene on the development of disorganized attachment, a potential endophenotype of depression. Infants born with low birth weight have been shown to be at higher risk for later neurological impairments, psychological disorders or behavioural problems. The DRD4 gene is critical for the cognitive and emotional processes that are sub-served by neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex. This paper examined the main effect of birth weight and DRD4 on the development of disorganized attachment. METHODS:Data was used from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) project. The sample consisted of 251 mother-child dyads with complete data. Attachment style was assessed using the modified separation-reunion procedure. RESULTS:There was no main effect for birth weight on disorganized attachment, (b = -0.001, p = 0.998). There was, however, a main effect for the DRD4 7-repeat polymorphism on disorganized attachment (b = -1.120, p = 0.004). LIMITATIONS:Compared to studies of similar design, the sample size in this study was relatively small. Additionally, a significant number of subjects did not have complete data. CONCLUSIONS:Children without the DRD4 7-repeat allele were more likely to have disorganized attachment than children with the DRD4 7-repeat allele. This indicates that the 7-repeate allele of the DRD4 gene may actually serve as a protective factor against disorganized attachment.

SUBMITTER: Graffi J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5447455 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Preschool children without 7-repeat DRD4 gene more likely to develop disorganized attachment style.

Graffi Justin J Moss Ellen E Jolicoeur-Martineau Alexia A Moss Gal G Lecompte Vanessa V Pascuzzo Katherine K Babineau Vanessa V Gordon-Green Cathryn C Mileva-Seitz Viara R VR Minde Klaus K Sassi Roberto R Carrey Normand N Kennedy James L JL Gaudreau Helene H Levitan Robert R Meaney Michael M Wazana Ashley A

McGill Science undergraduate research journal : MSURJ 20150301 1

<h4>Background</h4>The current paper aimed to explore the effects of birth weight and the 7-repeat allele in Exon III of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene on the development of disorganized attachment, a potential endophenotype of depression. Infants born with low birth weight have been shown to be at higher risk for later neurological impairments, psychological disorders or behavioural problems. The DRD4 gene is critical for the cognitive and emotional processes that are sub-served by neural ...[more]

PMID: 28574063

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Project description:OBJECTIVES:The Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM) is currently the most widely used and validated measure of attachment in psychosis. However, the PAM does not assess disorganized attachment, the type of attachment that has been most closely linked with vulnerability to psychosis. This study aimed to expand the PAM to capture the concept of disorganized attachment and to examine its psychometric properties in a psychosis sample. METHODS:Clinical and academic experts in the field of psychosis and service user representatives were asked to assess the comprehensiveness and comprehensibility of the pool of disorganized items. This process resulted in 12 items hypothesized to capture disorganized attachment that were included with the original items of the PAM. A sample of 144 individuals with either a self-reported diagnosis of, or treatment for, a psychosis-related condition completed a battery of online measures comprising the revised PAM, existing measures of adult disorganized attachment and constructs hypothesized to be conceptually related to disorganized attachment. RESULTS:An exploratory factor analysis was conducted with three factors retained; these were labelled anxious, avoidant and disorganized attachment. The factors displayed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability and the disorganized factor displayed good construct validity with related measures and constructs. CONCLUSIONS:These results provide preliminary evidence that the revised PAM captures the concept of disorganized attachment. However, confirmatory psychometric evaluation of the revised PAM is required, within a separate psychosis sample, to confirm its factor structure. The relationship between these results and the current literature, in addition to the clinical and research implications, are discussed. PRACTITIONER POINTS:We present an expanded version of the Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM), revised to capture the concept of disorganised attachment in adulthood. This expanded measure showed good reliability and the new disorganized subscale demonstrated construct validity. These results provide preliminary evidence that disorganized attachment can be measured using a simple self-report measure with individuals with psychosis. Further research is required to confirm the structural dimensionality of the revised PAM within a new sample using confirmatory factor analysis. Following further psychometric validation the use of this measure has the potential to be expanded to other mental health conditions in which disorganized attachment has been implicated in the development and maintenance of difficulties, for example, trauma-related conditions and borderline personality disorder.

Project description:Disorganized attachment is an important early risk factor for socioemotional problems throughout childhood and into adulthood. Prevailing models of the etiology of disorganized attachment emphasize the role of highly dysfunctional parenting, to the exclusion of complex models examining the interplay of child and parental factors. Decades of research have established that extreme child birth weight may have long-term effects on developmental processes. These effects are typically negative, but this is not always the case. Recent studies have also identified the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) as a moderator of childrearing effects on the development of disorganized attachment. However, there are inconsistent findings concerning which variant of the polymorphism (seven-repeat long-form allele or non-seven-repeat short-form allele) is most likely to interact with caregiving in predicting disorganized versus organized attachment. In this study, we examined possible two- and three-way interactions and child DRD4 polymorphisms and birth weight and maternal caregiving at age 6 months in longitudinally predicting attachment disorganization at 36 months. Our sample is from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment project, a sample of 650 mother-child dyads. Birth weight was cross-referenced with normative data to calculate birth weight percentile. Infant DRD4 was obtained with buccal swabs and categorized according to the presence of the putative allele seven repeat. Macroanalytic and microanalytic measures of maternal behavior were extracted from a videotaped session of 20 min of nonfeeding interaction followed by a 10-min divided attention maternal task at 6 months. Attachment was assessed at 36 months using the Strange Situation procedure, and categorized into disorganized attachment and others. The results indicated that a main effect for DRD4 and a two-way interaction of birth weight and 6-month maternal attention (frequency of maternal looking away behavior) and sensitivity predicted disorganized attachment in robust logistic regression models adjusted for social demographic covariates. Specifically, children in the midrange of birth weight were more likely to develop a disorganized attachment when exposed to less attentive maternal care. However, the association reversed with extreme birth weight (low and high). The DRD4 seven-repeat allele was associated with less disorganized attachment (protective), while non-seven-repeat children were more likely to be classified as disorganized attachment. The implications for understanding inconsistencies in the literature about which DRD4 genotype is the risk direction are also considered. Suggestions for intervention with families with infants at different levels of biological risk and caregiving risk are also discussed.

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Preschool children without 7-repeat DRD4 gene more likely to develop disorganized attachment style.

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Preschool children without 7-repeat DRD4 gene more likely to develop disorganized attachment style.

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