Research description
I am an associate professor in epidemiology and I study why individuals who receive one psychiatric diagnosis are more likely to receive all other psychiatric diagnoses (i.e., comorbidity). One hypothesis is that it might be beneficial to measure this comorbidity via a so-called general factor of psychopathology. This would allow for measuring both general as well as specific mental health problems. To address this issue, we apply multivariate behavior genetic analyses to the Swedish population-based health registers and the Swedish Twin Register.
Current doctoral students
Mengping Zhou (supervisor)
Christine Takami Lageborn (co-supervisor)
Astrid Moell (co-supervisor)
Postdoc
Current research grants (as PI)
Swedish Research Council
Selected publications
Opportunities of measuring hierarchical models of psychopathology Pettersson, E JCPP Advances
Associations Between General and Specific Psychopathology Factors and 10-Year Clinically Relevant Outcomes in Adult Swedish Twins and Siblings. Pettersson E, Larsson H, D'Onofrio BM, Lichtenstein P. JAMA Psychiatry. 2023 May 10:e231162.
The general factor of psychopathology: a comparison with the general factor of intelligence with respect to magnitude and predictive validity. Pettersson E, Larsson H, D'Onofrio BM, Bölte S, Lichtenstein P World Psychiatry 2020 Jun;19(2):206-213
Common psychiatric disorders share the same genetic origin: a multivariate sibling study of the Swedish population. Pettersson E, Larsson H, Lichtenstein P Mol Psychiatry 2016 May;21(5):717-21
Education
BA Psychology, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University (2004)
MA Psychology, College of William and Mary (2006)
PhD Psychology, University of Virginia (2012)