Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Feb;72(2):175-82.
doi: 10.4088/JCP.09m05407blu. Epub 2010 Aug 24.

Lifetime prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in fragile X premutation carriers

James A Bourgeois  1 , Andreea L Seritan, E Melina Casillas, David Hessl, Andrea Schneider, Ying Yang, Inderjeet Kaur, Jennifer B Cogswell, Danh V Nguyen, Randi J Hagerman
Affiliations

Lifetime prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in fragile X premutation carriers

James A Bourgeois et al. J Clin Psychiatry. 2011 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: The authors studied the lifetime prevalence of DSM-IV-TR psychiatric disorders in a population of adults with the fragile X premutation.

Method: The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV was conducted, from 2007-2008, in 85 individuals with the fragile X premutation, 47 with the fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS; 33 male, 14 female; mean age = 66 years) and 38 without FXTAS (16 male, 22 female; mean age = 52 years). Lifetime prevalence for mood and anxiety disorders among carriers with and without FXTAS was compared to available age-specific population estimates from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R).

Results: Among participants with FXTAS, 30 (65%) met lifetime DSM-IV-TR criteria for a mood disorder; 24 (52%) met lifetime DSM-IV-TR criteria for an anxiety disorder. Among the non-FXTAS participants, there were 15 instances of lifetime mood disorder (42%) and 18 of lifetime anxiety disorder (47%). When compared to age-specific NCS-R data, the lifetime prevalences of any mood disorder (P < .0001), major depressive disorder (P < .0001), any anxiety disorder (P < .0001), panic disorder (P = .006), specific phobia (P = .0003), and posttraumatic stress disorder (P = .004) were significantly higher in participants with FXTAS. The lifetime rates of social phobia in individuals with the premutation without FXTAS were significantly higher than NCS-R data (P = .001).

Conclusions: This sample of carriers of the fragile X premutation had a notably high lifetime risk of mood and anxiety disorders. Mood and anxiety disorders may be part of the clinical phenotype of the fragile X premutation conditions, especially in carriers with FXTAS. Clinicians encountering these patients are advised to consider FXTAS as a neuropsychiatric syndrome as well as a neurologic disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Hagerman RJ, Rivera SM, Hagerman PJ. The fragile X family of disorders: A model for autism and targeted treatments. Current Pediatric Reviews. 2008;4:40–52.
    1. Nolin SL, Brown WT, Glicksman A, et al. Expansion of the fragile X CGG repeat in females with premutation or intermediate alleles. Am J Hum Genet. 2003;72:454–464. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bassell GJ, Warren ST. Fragile X syndrome: loss of local mRNA regulation alters synaptic development and function. Neuron. 2008;60:201–214. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tassone F, Hagerman RJ, Taylor AK, et al. Elevated levels of FMR1 mRNA in carrier males: a new mechanism of involvement in fragile X syndrome. Am J Hum Genet. 2000;66:6–15. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Greco CM, Hagerman RJ, Tassone F, et al. Neuronal intranuclear inclusions in a new cerebellar tremor/ataxia syndrome among fragile X carriers. Brain. 2002;125:1760–1771. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances