44 genes associated with depression have been discovered – and we all have them.

In a global effort to shed light on the leading cause of job loss in the U.S., 200 researchers from the U.S., UK, and Australia have discovered that we all carry some genetic predisposition to depression.

The study also found that current antidepressants actually 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 this disease.

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

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

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 ineffectiveness of medication is largely due to our limited understanding of the causes and physiology of depression—as with many other mental health problems.

However, this new research is a "big step forward" in the right direction, according to 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 this disease can indeed strike anyone.

The findings provide crucial evidence that most of us carry genes that increase our risk for depression, so the notion that people with depression are "different from us" in some way is completely untrue.

Researchers analyzed the DNA of 135,000 people with depression and 344,000 control subjects without the illness.

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

We may 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 within this spectrum.

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

"This study needs to be repeated on a larger population with greater pigmentation," including Africans and Chinese.

According to the authors, the new study allows for genetic risk scoring by examining the entire genome to calculate overall risk for depression, and this can be applied in ways never seen before.

There is still a long way to go before these insights can be translated into targeted treatments, but acknowledging the combined effects of genetics and environment will be crucial.