Depression: they reveal how genes influence the development of the disease

The risk of depression increases up to three times if a first -grade family has suffered, in fact, within that this disorder comprises a very wide concept of variants, there is a range of up to 50% in which genetic factors can influence more than environmental.

It is underlined experts from the Mental Health Network Research Center (CIBERSAM) and the Clinic Hospital in Barcelona.

Depression is a common mental disorder that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), implies a depressed mood or loss of pleasure or interest in activities for long periods of time.

According to the European Health Survey, with data from 2020, estimates indicate that 5.4% of the Spanish population has Some type of depressive picture.

The Professor of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Barcelona and researcher at CIBERSAM, Bárbara Arias, emphasizes that the weight of genetics in depression “Maybe it’s not as powerful as in other mental disorders” like bipolar or schizophrenia, but there is.

Family studies what they tell us, if we look at families, which is the first thing we have to see if we talk about genetic predisposition, is that if you have a first -degree relative affected, your risk of having a depression increases 3 times more ”, Underline the researcher.

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Not only do environmental factors influence

The head of the Psychiatry and Psychology Service of the Clinic Hospital, Eduard Vieta, affects that in many occasions society may think that Depression It is associated only with environmental factors, when it is not always so.

The most popular and even sometimes insisted with certain forums in the factors that everyone understands better, which are social, but in depression within that there are various forms of this disorder, because it is a broad concept, there is a fan between 30% and 50% of genetic factors, ”abounds Vieta.

That is, depending on the type of depression, the genetic weight is greater or less, and “even in some depressions this factor is above environmental.”

In this sense, the expert emphasizes that between genetics and the environment, understanding this as the social factor, together with the psychological factors of the person and the epigenetics can “Activate or deactivate” The genes.

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The investigation

The psychiatrist explains that the latest study on genes and depression, published in 2022 in the Nature Genetics magazine, with almost a million subjects, identified about 350 genes.

There are a lot of genes that each one confers a relatively small risk, but if you add many, that is like buying lottery: who has more numbers is easier to touch. Then sometimes it touches one, that S “bought it a tenth,” he explains.

In this sense, it abounds that some of the identified genes are unknown the connection they have with depression, but others are known. As an example, he quotes those involved in the regulation of the production of brain neurotransmitter effects.

“They are genes that give us clues of things, some that we already know, others that do not. They open doors to investigate, ”adds Vieta.

Without specific biomarkers

The Cibersam researcher, on the other hand, adds that in mental disorders there is no concrete biomarker.

“There are still no described genes that we can say that if you have that variant in this gene You will have major depressionbut you are working on it very much and there are increasingly powerful studies, ”says Arias.

And the fact that it is a very heterogeneous disorder complicates, in the words of the researcher, “a little more things”, because, just as Vieta aimed, the environmental impact, such as abuse during childhood, “play a very relevant role. ”

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Other factors

Therefore, the Cybersam researcher affects that in most depressive episodes there is usually a previous “environmental trigger”, not only abuse, also the loss of work, bullying, humiliation, a divorce … ultimately , “Environmental factors that interact with our genetic background, with our genetic base.”

“If you have a genetic predisposition, that impact will have a more important effect and will increase that risk to suffer depression,” says Arias.

Prevention

However, the Head of the Psychiatry and Psychology Service of the Clinic insists on the importance of understanding that the genetics “is not deterministic” and for nothing is immodifiable.

What happens to us in life and habits that we have of health, the lifestyle, if we consume some drugs, all that will determine. And it also influences what happens to us throughout life, that is, if a person in the end has many misfortunes, however resilient, it can end depression, ”he says.

Sleep well, exercise, relaxation …

Thus, Vieta remembers that to try to prevent this mental disorderthe lifestyle is very important, as well as sleeping well and about this points that although there is some variability among people, “sleeping little or sleeping is a bad habit.”

And the quality of sleep is necessary, therefore, the ideal is not to consult screens before going to sleep, nor exercise in those previous moments, and learn to separate the stressful factors of the relaxation hours that the brain needs before resting .

“In general, not only to sleep, we must separate what stresses us from what our personal comfort sphere is, not to put the work and obligations above the family ahead, and do have time and space To relax, meditate or do things to disconnect from what worries us, ”he emphasizes.

In his opinion, all this and other factors are part “of something that perhaps should be taught more in schools and in the fields of health” because, the psychiatrist concludes, “Mental health must also cultivate and protect it”.

(With EFE information)

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