Sadra Medical Journal

Etiology of Skin Picking Disorder in Monozygotic and Dizygotic Twins (An Integrated Genetic, Environmental, and Behavioral Model)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Kazem Khorramdel 1
Usha Brahmand 2
Abbas Abolghasemi 3
Shiva Zare 4
Soode Dashtiane 5

1 Ph.D. in Psychology, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Fatemiyeh Shiraz, Institute of Higher Education, Shiraz, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of psychology, CUNY Queens College, Whashington, USA

3 Professor, Department of psychology, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

4 M.A. in Psychology, Department of psychology, Fatemiyeh Shiraz Institute of Higher Education, Shiraz, Iran

5 Ph.D. Candidate of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30476/smsj.2023.91320.1257
Abstract
Introduction: The new DSM-5 “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders” chapter contains a series of conditions supposed to be etiologically related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This study aimed to investigate the genetic and environmental contribution to Skin Picking Disorder and relate the findings to contemporary theories about the etiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Methods: This research was a twin study design. 672 twins (Mz=474; DZ=202) were selected from twins associations in some cities in Iran in 2019. The Skin Picking Scale and the Self-Report of Zygosity were used as the research instruments. Twin modeling methods were employed to decompose the variance in the liability to excoriation (skin-picking) disorder (SPD) into additive genetic and shared and non-shared environmental factors. SPSS-26, Stata-17 and M-plus version 8.3.2 analyzed the data.
Results: Univariate model-fitting analyses showed that genetic factors accounted for approximately 80% of the variance in SPD, whereas non-shared environmental factors and measurement error were responsible for the remaining variance. Shared environmental factors were negligible. The best-fitted model for SPD was DE.
Conclusion: The results indicate that SPD has a strong heritability. Therefore, family and molecular genetic studies are required to delineate the role of candidate genes and non-shared environmental factors.

Keywords

Dizygotic Twins
Environmental and Behavioral
Monozygotic Twins
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
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Sadra Medical Journal
Volume 10, Issue 4
October 2022
Pages 317-330

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