Cognitive Emotional Dysregulation of FMR1 Premutation Carrier Mothers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Cognitive Emotional Dysregulation of FMR1 Premutation Carrier Mothers Of Children With Fragile X Syndrome
IRAS ID
223794
Contact name
Marinos Kyriakopoulos
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
South London and Maudsly NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
There is a growing evidence that mothers of children with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) have higher rates of emotional and psychological difficulties compared to mothers of controls. Biological mothers of individuals with FXS are reported to have severe enough symptoms that warranted a psychiatric diagnosis including depressive disorders, panic disorder and agoraphobia. Although the stress of raising a child with FXS could contribute to the risk for psychopathology, many female carriers were reported to have anxiety and depressive symptoms even before giving birth to children who have FXS.Many studies point to the role of emotional dysregulation as a risk factor for developing mood and anxiety disorders.However, research studying emotional regulation strategies in the premutation FMR1 carriers is very limited. It is still unclear how premutation carriers of FMR1 gene use cognitive emotional strategies and whether these strategies are associated with more emotional difficulties in this population. Understanding emotional regulation difficulties can help in tailoring preventive and therapeutic programmes to meet the needs of this group of people.
This study aims to study the emotional and cognitive regulation strategies in FMR1 gene premutation carrier mothers of children with FXS compared to mothers of children with Down Syndrome (DS) to control for the environmental factor of the stress of raising a child with special needs. We also aim to explore the association between the dysfunctional cognitive emotional strategies and the presence of depressive and anxiety symptoms including symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder and symptoms of obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders in this population.
We hypothesize that premutation FMR1 gene carrier mothers of children with FXS use more dysfunctional cognitive emotional regulation strategies compared to mothers of children with DS. The use of dysfunctional strategies is associated with more anxiety and depressive symptoms.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0861
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion