GLAD: Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression

The GLAD Study is the largest anxiety and depression project ever undertaken. The study is part of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) BioResource.

Find out more about the GLAD study here

The GLAD study website

TEDS: Twins Early Development Study

The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) is one of the leading twin studies in the world. The study began in 1994 led by Professor Robert Plomin, and has followed over 15,000 pairs of British twins throughout their childhood, adolescence and into early adulthood. Professor Thalia Eley is the incoming director of TEDS. The study's main goal is to investigate how genetic and environmental factors contribute to children’s development, including their behaviour and cognitive abilities, and what kind of influence they have in later life. Over 13 waves of data collection, the twins and their families have provided us with invaluable information about their experiences and other individual factors that might have influenced them during their lives. Additionally, we have collected DNA samples from more than 5,000 pairs of twins and are using this data to improve our understanding of the effect of genes on abilities and behaviours. We actively encourage and facilitate the sharing of our data. On the TEDS project website there is a page specifically for researchers. This includes access to the TEDS data dictionary which provides documentation on all the data that has been collected. There is also a TEDS publication search engine and a current TEDS project search engine. On these pages, researchers can learn about the steps involved in accessing and using our data.

Find out more about TEDS here

The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) website

CoTEDS: Children of Twins Study

The Children of TEDS study, or CoTEDS, was launched in 2017. We are collecting data from the children of the now grown-up TEDS twins, making this the first ever twin study to include information on both twin parents and their offspring. This will help us establish how different behaviours and traits are passed down through generations. As the adult parents are twins, we are able to disentangle whether traits run in families because of genetic inheritance, because of living together, or both. This is because when identical twins have children, those children are as just as genetically similar to their parents as they are to the twin of their parent. However, it is only their own parent that will provide the child with their rearing environment, since the adult twin pairs will raise their respective children in different environments. Identifying the ways in which emotional problems are transmitted from one generation to the next provides clues for the best places to focus on in regards to intervention and early treatment. If you are a TEDS twin and are interested in becoming a part of this research, please register with the link below for further information. It doesn't matter how much or how little you were were involved in past TEDS research, this is a new and equally exciting opportunity!

Find out more about the study here

FLARe: Fear Learning and Anxiety Response

FLARe aims to model the processes underlying the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders, and post-treatment relapse. Some people learn very quickly that certain things make them feel anxious, whereas others are less likely to experience these feelings. Similarly, there is variation in how quickly anxiety reduces following a stressful experience, and in how successfully people who are anxious respond to exposure based treatments. In this study, we are interested in how people learn to be anxious of new things, and how they learn that some things that make them feel anxious might not always be unpleasant. We are also interested in the ways in which genes and the environment might contribute to this.

More information about the FLARe study can be found here

G1219: Genesis 1219

G1219 is a longitudinal study that aims to examine the interplay between genes and the environment on the development of anxiety and depression over time. We have also regularly assessed other aspects of development including aggression and sleep quality, and environmental experiences including life events and peer group difficulties.

Find our more about the G1219 study here

Genes for Treatment

The Genes for Treatment studies, were a set of studies exploring the role of genetic factors on response to psychological treatment. The first of these was a study of school-aged children, undergoing Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy for an anxiety disorder. This was an international multi site collaboration with over 10 different groups recruiting into the study. The second was the Genes for Exposure Therapy project, recruiting from three clinics in Germany.

More information about the Genes for Treatment studies is available here