Scholars@Duke
Karen Sugden

Selected Publications

Association of Pace of Aging Measured by Blood-Based DNA Methylation With Age-Related Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.

Journal Article Neurology · September 2022 Background and objectivesDNA methylation algorithms are increasingly used to estimate biological aging; however, how these proposed measures of whole-organism biological aging relate to aging in the brain is not known. We used data from the Alzhei ... Full text Cite

Cumulative childhood risk is associated with a new measure of chronic inflammation in adulthood.

Journal Article Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · February 2019 BackgroundChildhood risk factors are associated with elevated inflammatory biomarkers in adulthood, but it is unknown whether these risk factors are associated with increased adult levels of the chronic inflammation marker soluble urokinase plasmi ... Full text Cite

Characterizing genetic and environmental influences on variable DNA methylation using monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

Journal Article PLoS genetics · August 2018 Variation in DNA methylation is being increasingly associated with health and disease outcomes. Although DNA methylation is hypothesized to be a mechanism by which both genetic and non-genetic factors can influence the regulation of gene expression, little ... Full text Cite

Analysis of DNA Methylation in Young People: Limited Evidence for an Association Between Victimization Stress and Epigenetic Variation in Blood.

Journal Article The American journal of psychiatry · June 2018 ObjectiveDNA methylation has been proposed as an epigenetic mechanism by which early-life experiences become "embedded" in the genome and alter transcriptional processes to compromise health. The authors sought to investigate whether early-life vi ... Full text Cite

Eleven Telomere, Epigenetic Clock, and Biomarker-Composite Quantifications of Biological Aging: Do They Measure the Same Thing?

Journal Article American journal of epidemiology · June 2018 The geroscience hypothesis posits that therapies to slow biological processes of aging can prevent disease and extend healthy years of life. To test such "geroprotective" therapies in humans, outcome measures are needed that can assess extension of disease ... Full text Cite

Genetics and Crime: Integrating New Genomic Discoveries Into Psychological Research About Antisocial Behavior.

Journal Article Psychological science · May 2018 Drawing on psychological and sociological theories of crime causation, we tested the hypothesis that genetic risk for low educational attainment (assessed via a genome-wide polygenic score) is associated with criminal offending. We further tested hypothese ... Full text Cite

Childhood victimization and inflammation in young adulthood: A genetically sensitive cohort study.

Journal Article Brain, behavior, and immunity · January 2018 ObjectiveChildhood victimization is an important risk factor for later immune-related disorders. Previous evidence has demonstrated that childhood victimization is associated with elevated levels of inflammation biomarkers measured decades after e ... Full text Cite

Association of Childhood Blood Lead Levels With Cognitive Function and Socioeconomic Status at Age 38 Years and With IQ Change and Socioeconomic Mobility Between Childhood and Adulthood.

Journal Article JAMA · March 2017 ImportanceMany children in the United States and around the world are exposed to lead, a developmental neurotoxin. The long-term cognitive and socioeconomic consequences of lead exposure are uncertain.ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that ... Full text Cite

Early-Life Intelligence Predicts Midlife Biological Age.

Journal Article The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · November 2016 ObjectivesEarly-life intelligence has been shown to predict multiple causes of death in populations around the world. This finding suggests that intelligence might influence mortality through its effects on a general process of physiological deter ... Full text Cite

The Genetics of Success: How Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated With Educational Attainment Relate to Life-Course Development.

Journal Article Psychological science · July 2016 A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of more than 100,000 individuals identified molecular-genetic predictors of educational attainment. We undertook in-depth life-course investigation of the polygenic score derived from this GWAS using the four ... Full text Open Access Cite

Is Toxoplasma Gondii Infection Related to Brain and Behavior Impairments in Humans? Evidence from a Population-Representative Birth Cohort.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2016 BackgroundToxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a protozoan parasite present in around a third of the human population. Infected individuals are commonly asymptomatic, though recent reports have suggested that infection might influence aspects of the h ... Full text Cite

Is Adult ADHD a Childhood-Onset Neurodevelopmental Disorder? Evidence From a Four-Decade Longitudinal Cohort Study.

Journal Article The American journal of psychiatry · October 2015 ObjectiveDespite a prevailing assumption that adult ADHD is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder, no prospective longitudinal study has described the childhoods of the adult ADHD population. The authors report follow-back analyses of ADHD ... Full text Cite

Quantification of biological aging in young adults.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · July 28, 2015 Antiaging therapies show promise in model organism research. Translation to humans is needed to address the challenges of an aging global population. Interventions to slow human aging will need to be applied to still-young individuals. However, most human ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Blood Substrate Collection and Handling Procedures under Pseudo-Field Conditions: Evaluation of Suitability for Inflammatory Biomarker Measurement.

Journal Article Biodemography and social biology · January 2015 Routine incorporation of blood-based biomarker measurements in population studies has been hampered by challenges in obtaining samples suitable for biomarker assessment outside of laboratory settings. Here, we assessed the suitability of venous blood left ... Full text Cite

Internalizing disorders and leukocyte telomere erosion: a prospective study of depression, generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Molecular psychiatry · November 2014 There is evidence that persistent psychiatric disorders lead to age-related disease and premature mortality. Telomere length has emerged as a promising biomarker in studies that test the hypothesis that internalizing psychiatric disorders are associated wi ... Full text Cite

Perinatal complications and aging indicators by midlife.

Journal Article Pediatrics · November 2014 BACKGROUND: Perinatal complications predict increased risk for morbidity and early mortality. Evidence of perinatal programming of adult mortality raises the question of what mechanisms embed this long-term effect. We tested a hypothesis related to the the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is chronic asthma associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length at midlife?

Journal Article American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine · August 2014 RATIONALE: Asthma is prospectively associated with age-related chronic diseases and mortality, suggesting the hypothesis that asthma may relate to a general, multisystem phenotype of accelerated aging. OBJECTIVES: To test whether chronic asthma is associat ... Full text Open Access Cite

Exposure to violence during childhood is associated with telomere erosion from 5 to 10 years of age: a longitudinal study.

Journal Article Molecular psychiatry · May 2013 There is increasing interest in discovering mechanisms that mediate the effects of childhood stress on late-life disease morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have suggested one potential mechanism linking stress to cellular aging, disease and mortalit ... Full text Cite

Polygenic risk and the developmental progression to heavy, persistent smoking and nicotine dependence: evidence from a 4-decade longitudinal study.

Journal Article JAMA psychiatry · May 2013 ImportanceGenome-wide hypothesis-free discovery methods have identified loci that are associated with heavy smoking in adulthood. Research is needed to understand developmental processes that link newly discovered genetic risks with adult heavy sm ... Full text Cite

Development and evaluation of a genetic risk score for obesity

Journal Article Biodemography & Social Biology · May 2013 Cite

Polygenic risk and the development and course of asthma: an analysis of data from a four-decade longitudinal study

Journal Article The Lancet Respiratory Medicine · 2013 Background Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have discovered genetic variants that predispose individuals to asthma. To integrate these new discoveries with emerging models of asthma pathobiology, we aimed to test how genetic discoveries relate to dev ... Full text Cite

Polygenic risk, rapid childhood growth, and the development of obesity: evidence from a 4-decade longitudinal study.

Journal Article Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med · June 1, 2012 OBJECTIVE: To test how genomic loci identified in genome-wide association studies influence the development of obesity. DESIGN: A 38-year prospective longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort. SETTING: The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Dev ... Full text Link to item Cite

Convergent translational evidence of a role for anandamide in amygdala-mediated fear extinction, threat processing and stress-reactivity

Journal Article Molecular psychiatry · 2012 Endocannabinoids are released 'on-demand' on the basis of physiological need, and can be pharmacologically augmented by inhibiting their catabolic degradation. The endocannabinoid anandamide is degraded by the catabolic enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (F ... Full text Link to item Cite

Serotonin transporter gene moderates childhood maltreatment's effects on persistent but not single-episode depression: replications and implications for resolving inconsistent results.

Journal Article Journal of affective disorders · December 2011 BackgroundGenetic and environmental factors shape life-long vulnerability to depression, but most gene-environment interaction (G×E) research has focused on cross-sectional assessments rather than life-course phenotypes. This study tests the hypot ... Full text Cite

Serotonin transporter gene moderates the development of emotional problems among children following bullying victimization.

Journal Article Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · August 2010 ObjectiveBullying is the act of intentionally and repeatedly causing harm to someone who has difficulty defending him- or herself, and is a relatively widespread school-age phenomenon. Being the victim of bullying is associated with a broad spectr ... Full text Cite

Protective effect of CRHR1 gene variants on the development of adult depression following childhood maltreatment: replication and extension.

Journal Article Archives of general psychiatry · September 2009 ContextA previous study reported a gene x environment interaction in which a haplotype in the corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 gene (CRHR1) was associated with protection against adult depressive symptoms in individuals who were maltreat ... Full text Cite

Influence of life stress on depression: moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene.

Journal Article Science (New York, N.Y.) · July 2003 In a prospective-longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort, we tested why stressful experiences lead to depression in some people but not in others. A functional polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter (5-HT T) gene was f ... Full text Cite

The dopamine D4 receptor and the hyperactivity phenotype: a developmental-epidemiological study.

Journal Article Molecular psychiatry · January 2002 Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 2-6% of school-age children and is a precursor of behavioural problems in adolescence and adulthood. Underlying the categorical definition of ADHD are the quantitative traits of activity, impulsivity, ... Full text Cite