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Review
. 2017 Aug;19(8):43.
doi: 10.1007/s11920-017-0803-9.

Genetics of Depression: Progress at Last

Niamh Mullins  1 , Cathryn M Lewis  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Genetics of Depression: Progress at Last

Niamh Mullins et al. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2017 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose of review: We will describe the success of recent genome-wide association studies that identify genetic variants associated with depression and outline the strategies used to reduce heterogeneity and increase sample size.

Recent findings: The CONVERGE consortium identified two genetic associations by focusing on a sample of Chinese women with recurrent severe depression. Three other loci have been found in Europeans by combining cohorts with clinical diagnosis and measures of depressive symptoms to increase sample size. 23andMe identified 15 loci associated with depression using self-report of clinical diagnosis in a study of over 300,000 individuals. The first genetic associations with depression have been identified, and this number is now expected to increase linearly with sample size, as seen in other polygenic disorders. These loci provide invaluable insights into the biology of depression and exciting opportunities to develop new biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Keywords: Depression; Genetics; Genome-wide association study; Heterogeneity; Polygenic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

Niamh Mullins and Cathryn Lewis each declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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