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Physicians identify 44 genetic causes of depression
Health experts say the relationship between genetic factors and depression is now undisputed. An international research team has now identified 44 gene sites associated with major depression. According to experts, we all carry the mental illness equipment in us.
More and more people are suffering from mental illness
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the number of people with depression worldwide has increased significantly. In Germany and the EU too, more and more people are suffering from the mental illness. According to the German Depressionshilfe fall in this country every year over five million people in need of treatment, unipolar depression. An international research team has now succeeded in identifying 44 gene sites that are associated with major depression.
The connection between genetic factors and depression has been known for some time. Researchers have now identified 44 gene locations associated with major depression. 30 of them were described for the first time. (Image: sompong_tom / fotolia.com) Connection of genetic factors and depression
According to health experts, depression is more than a single cause in most cases.
The mental disorder can be promoted by stress, stressful life events or diseases such as thyroid diseases or Parkinson's.
In addition, it has long been known that genes play an important role in the development of mental illness.
"The connection between genetic factors and depression is now undisputed", explains Prof. Dr. med. Manuel Mattheisen in a communication from the University of Würzburg.
The head of the working group on psychiatric genetics and epigenetics at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy of the University of Würzburg continues:
"Since the disease is clinically and genetically very complex, as many people as possible need to be studied for each additional gain in knowledge. In addition to national efforts, this requires cooperation in large, international research consortia. "
Thirty of the 44 identified loci were first described
Such a consortium with the participation of Prof. Dr. med. Manuel Mattheisen now examined the genes of almost 500,000 people - 135,000 patients with depression and more than 344,000 control persons.
The results of the study were recently published in the journal Nature Genetics.
"We were able to identify 44 gene locations that are associated with major depression," reports Prof. Mattheisen, one of the first authors of the study.
Genort describes the exact location of a particular gene or genetic marker on a chromosome. Of the identified loci, 30 were described for the first time, while 14 had already been discovered in earlier studies.
According to the analyzes, all people worldwide carry at least some of the 44 identified genetic risk factors.
The door to the biological causes belch
The new findings are the direct result of a global effort of more than 200 scientists working together in the International Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC).
"People who combine a higher number of genetic risk factors also have an increased risk of developing depression," Dr. Naomi Wray from the University of Queensland in Australia, who together with Dr. Patrick F. Sullivan, director of the Center for Psychiatric Genomics at the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine (USA), and a team of other authors led the study.
"We know that many other (environmental) factors play a role, but identifying these genetic relationships can open the door to biological causes," says the expert.
"With further future research efforts, we should be able to develop tools that are important for the treatment of major depression," says Dr. Sullivan.
"In the field of pharmacogenetics, the published findings open up new possibilities in the future to predict the response of therapies with antidepressants," added Prof. Mattheisen. (Ad)