Heritability of personality disorder traits: a twin study

TLDR

The DAPP‑DQ measures four higher‑order factors, 18 basic dimensions, and 69 facet traits of personality disorder. The study examined genetic and non‑genetic influences on the hierarchy of personality disorder traits measured by the DAPP‑DQ. It used data from 483 volunteer twin pairs, including 236 monozygotic and 247 dizygotic pairs. Twin correlations ranged from 0.26 to 0.56 for monozygotic and 0.03 to 0.41 for dizygotic pairs, yielding broad heritability estimates up to 58% (median 45%) and indicating that additive genetic and unique environmental effects were the main contributors, with unique environment explaining the largest variance for most traits.

Abstract

Genetic and non‐genetic influences on the hierarchy of traits that delineate personality disorder as measured by the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Problems (DAPP‐DQ) scale were examined using data from a sample of 483 volunteer twin pairs (236 monozygotic pairs and 247 dizygotic pairs). The DAPP‐DQ assesses four higher‐order factors, 18 basic dimensions and 69 facet traits of personality disorder. The correlation coefficients for monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs ranged from 0.26 to 0.56 and from 0.03 to 0.41, respectively. Broad heritability estimates ranged from 0 to 58% (median value, 45%). Additive genetic effects and unique environmental effects emerged as the primary influences on these scales, with unique environmental influences accounting for the largest proportion of the variance for most traits at all levels of the hierarchy.