Depression is something that appears to run in families. If you are someone who has a tendency to suffer from some form of depression, you might be able to think of at least one other relative who also has experienced depressive episodes as well. It’s possible to be depressed, and have no idea why you feel so sad. A new study finds that your susceptibility to depression is in your genes.
Whether you are feeling sad due to a seasonal depression, or as a response to a stressful event, one thing is true. Depression is something to take seriously. There are some specific warning signs that indicate that a person is depressed. Some of these signs include a tendency to withdraw from family and friends that the person used to spend a lot of time with, sadness, crying, extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and a loss if interest in hobbies or activities that the person enjoyed and valued before the depression started. If you think that someone you love is depressed, talk to that person about it. Point that person towards getting help for his or her depression.
There has been some debate about if the depression that seems to run in a family is due to nature, or nurture. Children learn a lot from their parents. A child of a severely depressed parent could, essentially, learn how to be depressed. This could affect both the child’s behaviors and his or her thinking patterns. On the other hand, the reason why it seemed like depression runs in families could be due to a genetically heritable factor. There is also the argument that an individual’s tendency to suffer from depression was due to both heritability and observation.
A new study, which has been published in the “Archives of General Psychiatry”, found that a person’s genes do, in fact, affect how that person responds to stress. Researchers reviewed 54 different studies on depression, that were done sometime between 2001 and 2010, (which included at total of more than 41,000 participants).
There is a gene that regulates how much of a chemical called serotonin is produced. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. The amount of serotonin that flows to your brain influences your mood, and emotional state. Those whose “serotonin transporters” included a gene that was shorter than would be typically expected at a certain point had a harder time bouncing back after experiencing a stressful event.
However, the shortened form of this particular gene was is not the only factor that determines a person’s susceptibility to becoming depressed. It’s not quite that simple. Instead, this study indicates that it may be possible to identify people who may be at a higher risk of experiencing depression than the average person, based on that person’s genes. This could lead to earlier interventions, or to treatment that is designed to help that specific individual.
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