December 10, 2004
Study Pursues A Genetic Link To Depression
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists in North Carolina have discovered a genetic variation that could predispose people to depression and may help explain why some people who develop the condition get no relief from drug treatments.
The findings, posted yesterday in the online edition of the journal Neuron, may allow researchers to develop a test for genetic vulnerability to depression and to create more effective treatments.
''The results need to be replicated, but they suggest that we may be able to personalize the treatment of depression,'' said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which helped finance the study. ''We might be able to predict, based on the presence of this gene variation, whether someone will respond to certain antidepressants.''
Dr. Marc Caron and Dr. Xiaodong Zhang, biologists at Duke University Medical Center, led a team of researchers who identified a mutation of a single gene that greatly reduced the amount of serotonin produced by brain cells. Serotonin is a chemical messenger active between neurons, and it has a powerful effect on mood.
Although scientists do not yet fully understand how the serotonin system works, higher circulating levels of it are associated with lighter moods. Antidepressant drugs like Prozac and Zoloft help lift feelings of despair in some people by prolonging the action of serotonin, experts say.
The researchers tested for that gene variation in 87 people with depression, and found that 10 percent had it -- a significant genetic correlation, for a disorder that is influenced by multiple genes. They found that less than 1 percent of a comparison group without depression had the mutation.
In previous work, the scientists had shown that mice that have the same genetic variation have significantly reduced brain levels of serotonin. The mutation causes about an 80 percent drop in serotonin production in laboratory tests.
This is the first mutation that actually reduces production of serotonin, a factor linked to anxiety, depression and other mental troubles, Dr. Caron said.
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December 17, 2004 New Report on Stress And Depression Link
Scientists studying depression reported yesterday that they had found evidence that a common genetic variation affecting how people manage stress predicts how much benefit they get from taking antidepressants.
Psychiatrists have long known that about half the people found to be suffering from depression also show signs of elevated anxiety. Researchers have tried to explain the correlation, as well as why the same drugs can relieve both conditions. In the new study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, doctors from Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles, treated with drugs a group of 54 Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles who were both depressed and highly anxious. (Limiting the study to one demographic group was a control tool.) They found that 60 percent of the group had a common genetic variant that helps govern the body's response to stress. The researchers found that after being treated with antidepressants, patients with the genetic variation were far less anxious and depressed than when they began the study, said the lead author, Dr. Julio Licinio of the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California. But anxious, depressed patients who did not have the variation got much less relief from the drugs, Dr. Licinio said, adding, ''This is the first time we've linked response to antidepressants to a stress-related genetic variation.''
I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am to see these two research articles ! I've really struggled with depression most of my life & have found that whole attitude that "it's all in your head" or it's just your attitude/outlook or you ......... etc. when down deep inside I knew very well there was more to it than that ! Well on the plus side of all, it has kept me searching to increase my own understanding & ability to cope, I can tell you that much ! RM |
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