A global research project has identified 44 genetic variants which are risk factors for depression, 30 of which are newly discovered. The study, by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and co-led in the UK by King's College London, is the largest study to-date of genetic risk factors for major depression.
Published in Nature Genetics, the research finds that the genetic basis for major depression is shared with other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and that all humans carry at least some of the 44 genetic risk factors identified. The genetic findings were associated with clinical features of major depression and implicated brain regions exhibiting anatomical differences in cases.
The researchers found important relationships between genetic risk for major depression and educational attainment, BMI and schizophrenia. Lower educational attainment and higher BMI were “putatively causal”, whereas major depression and schizophrenia reflected a partly shared biological aetiology.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. Gerome Breen from King's College London said: “With this study, depression genetics has advanced to the forefront of genetic discovery.
“The new genetic variants discovered have the potential to revitalise depression treatment by opening up avenues for the discovery of new and improved therapies,” he explained.
Dr. Breen and colleagues are currently working on an online tool, for release in the autumn, to allow volunteers with depression to take part in further genetic studies.
