44 depression genes discovered - we all have them

In a global effort to shed light on the leading cause of absenteeism in the US, 200 researchers from the UK, US and Australia have found that we all carry some genetic risk for depression.

The study also found that current antidepressants do indeed target certain genetic variants – albeit entirely by chance.

The discovery of so many new genes common to everyone is a breakthrough in the development of new, more targeted therapies for the disease.

The World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people worldwide struggle with depression.

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and in the United States, more than 16 million people suffer from the disease.

Mental health disorders are becoming more common, but science is still lagging behind the spread of the disease, leaving millions of people searching for treatment.

The lack of effectiveness of drugs is largely due to how little we know about the causes and physiology of depression – like many other mental health problems.

Still, the new research is a “big step forward” in the right direction, says Patrick Sullivan, a genetics and psychiatry expert at the University of North Carolina.

The existence of 44 genetic risk factors for depression also confirms that the disease can indeed strike anyone.

The findings provide important evidence that most of us carry genes that are risk factors for depression, so the idea that people with depression are somehow “different” from us is completely untrue.

Researchers evaluated the DNA of 135,000 people with depression and 344,000 controls who did not have the condition.

They found that, genetically, everyone falls within a “spectrum” of risk for depression.

We can all inherit some risk factors for depression, but depending on where we fall on this spectrum and what happens to us throughout our lives, we may or may not develop depression.

But everyone falls somewhere on this spectrum.

It should be noted that although the study was large, it was based only on “European and Euro-American subjects.”

“This study needs to be repeated in larger pigmented populations,” including Africans and Chinese.

The new study allows genetic risk scoring by looking at the entire genome to calculate overall risk for depression and can be applied in a way never seen before, according to the authors.

There is still a long way to go before this understanding is translated into targeted treatments, but acknowledging the dual effects of genetics and environment will be key.