A recently published study has shown that there is a higher likelyhood of female carriers of Fragile X Syndrome suffering from certain mood and anxiety disorders..

The study found that lifetime major depressive disorder (MDD), lifetime panic disorder without agoraphobia and current agoraphobia without panic disorder were more common in carriers. However they were also found to have a low frequency of lifetime social phobia, specific phobias and post-traumatic stress disorders. MDD in the FMR1 premutation sample was not episodic or comorbid with an anxiety disorder. Smaller CGG repeat length and never having been married were associated with an increased likelyhood of MDD, whereas the likelyhood of an anxiety disorder increased with the number of children in the family with Fragile X and the greater their problem behaviours.

The study, “Mood and anxiety disorders in females with the FMR1 premutationin”, volved 93 females with the FMR1 premutation and 2,159 women from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) dataset.and was carried out by the FPG Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Researchers: Roberts JE, Bailey DB Jr, Mankowski J, Ford A, Sideris J, Weisenfeld LA, Heath TM, Golden RN. The results were published in Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2008 Jun 13.