Depression is a common condition and a top public health issue worldwide. The symptoms of depression include sadness that interferes with daily life, low energy, irritability, loss of interest in once pleasurable activities, and constant blue mood. Depression can also cause physical symptoms including headaches, back pain, chronic aches and pains, chest pain, digestive problems, exhaustion, sleep problems, change in appetite and/or weight, and dizziness. Now research reports that chronic depression may run in families and may have a genetic component.
The study, published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, examined whether chronic depression is linked within the family. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore analyzed the data of 638 chronically depressed participants who developed major depression before age 31. The subjects were participants in the Genetics of Recurrent Early-Onset Depression (GenRED) project. The participants were compared with 1,085 of their relatives who had suffered from major depression.
The researchers found that family members were two and a half times more likely to have chronic depression if a parent or sibling had chronic depression. Furthermore, family members were six times more likely to have chronic depression if their parent or sibling had chronic depressing by age 13. "These findings suggest that chronicity of depressive symptoms is familial, especially in preadolescent-onset illness," the study authors write.
The study authors intend to do further studies to determine the genes that may be involved with depression. "Further study using chronicity as a subtype in the genetic analysis of depressive illness is warranted," the study authors write. "Refinement of the definition of chronicity in depressive illness may increase the power of such studies."
REFERENCES:
1. Mondimore FM et al. Familial aggregation of illness chronicity in recurrent, early-onset major depression pedigrees. Am J Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;163(9):1554-60.
Posted by Elaine Gavalas on January 27, 2007 03:33 PM
