New Genetic Studies Point to One Origin of Depression

Two new genetic studies hint at the location of a gene that may be involved in the origin of depression. Using genome-wide association studies, Gerome Breen, Ph.D., of King’s College London and colleagues from six other countries, found evidence for a link between major depression and the region on chromosome 3 containing the gene GRM7.

Similar findings came in a separate study of Australian smokers by Michele Pergadia, Ph.D., and colleagues.

Both sets of researchers suggest that the genomic region labeled 3p26-3p25 may be an important area for further genetic research on depression.

“The significance of this finding remains uncertain, although it points to a gene that might hold significant promise for further developments in studying the pathophysiology and treatment of major depressive disorder,” wrote Steven Hamilton, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Psychiatry and Institute for Human Genetics at the University of California, San Francisco, in a commentary in the August American Journal of Psychiatry.

Abstracts of the two studies and the commentary can be read at:

Breen: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/168/8/840.
Pergadia: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/168/8/848.

Hamilton: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/168/8/783.

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