Abstract
Pain and psychopathology co-occur in adolescence, but the directionality and etiology of these associations are unclear. Using the pain questionnaire and the Child Behavior Checklist from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 10,414 children [770 twin pairs] aged 12–13), we estimated longitudinal, co-twin control, and twin models to evaluate the nature of these associations. In two-wave cross-lag panel models, there were small cross-lag effects that suggested bidirectional associations. However, the co-twin control models suggested that most associations were familial. Pain at age 12 and 13 was mostly environmental (A = 0–12%, C = 15–30%, E = 70–73%) and the twin models suggested that associations with psychopathology were primarily due to shared environmental correlations. The exception was externalizing, which had a phenotypic prospective effect on pain, a significant within-family component, and a non-shared environmental correlation at age 12. Environmental risk factors may play a role in pain-psychopathology co-occurrence. Future studies can examine risk factors such as stressful life events.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and analyzed were accessed from the ABCD Data repository. Researchers who have been approved by the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA) Data Use Certification may access the ABCD study data (https://nda.nih.gov/abcd/). The ABCD data used in this report came from the ABCD release 4.0 (Study-specific NDA: 10.15154/1528696). ABCD data is publically available.
Code availability
Available on request.
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The authors were supported by National Institutes of Health grants DA046064 and MH016880. The ABCD Study® is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041048, U01DA050989, U01DA051016, U01DA041022, U01DA051018, U01DA051037, U01DA050987, U01DA041174, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041028, U01DA041134, U01DA050988, U01DA051039, U01DA041156, U01DA041025, U01DA041120, U01DA051038, U01DA041148, U01DA041093, U01DA041089, U24DA041123, and U24DA041147.
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LR and NF contributed to idea development. SF assisted in accessing ABCD data and analyses. LR prepared the manuscript with input from NF and SF. All authors helped in revision of the manuscript.
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Rader, L., Freis, S.M. & Friedman, N.P. Associations Between Adolescent Pain and Psychopathology in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Behav Genet 53, 232–248 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-023-10138-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-023-10138-x