: Can depression be genetic? I find the articles of most interest to be those that seem to be making a lot of progress in the study of genetics and mental illness including a genetic link to ADHD. Even though these studies are in the very early stages, they shed some new light on mental illness and "maybe" some promise of a break through down the road. is in the forefront of many studies today. Can depression be genetic or is depression genetically inherited are questions that are often asked of me. Is there a suicide gene? Certain studies have claimed to isolate parts of the brain and genes that may be responsible for depression; and other articles claim that the environment can alter the genes which would give someone a predisposition to depression or other mental illnesses. Still other research has claimed that toxins or deficiencies or a plethora of vitamins in early development can also lead to mental illness.
To say that the cause of an illness of any sort is genetic is somewhat of a vacuous answer. We can then ask what was the cause of the illness in the ancestor that passed this gene along; and on and on we go. Somewhere in the family of origin, somebody had to be the "prime cause" or "first cause" that introduced this illness to the family gene pool. Now the question of whether the prime cause was a gene mutation or environmental issue cannot be avoided. This also entails another issue viz. if mental illness is initially introduced to a particular gene pool by means other than DNA, then of logical necessity-mental illness can still be caused by factors other than DNA. The question then becomes, what are some of the possible causes of mental illness, are they biological, genetic mutations, environmental stressors, toxins...
Some scientists have claimed to have isolated a certain area in the brain that is responsible for pleasure and that genetic therapy might be able to repair or change the brain function by adding a missing brain protein p11 to that specific area of the brain.
Other studies claim that fetal stress or traumatic events can cause the genes to "turn on or off". Small chemical groups can cause protein complexes to bind to histones and these can control gene activity. The researchers have studied in detail a complex called PRC2 which can attach small chemical groups - methyl groups - to the histones. Protective complexes can bind to the histones when this marker is present and the genes are turned off. Their new results show that the protective complexes are lost and selected genes turned on when cells are exposed to external stress factors.
Recent studies seem to have found a biomarker or genetic mutation that influences how the brain responds to stress which plays a key role in depression. The study claims to have found a genetic mutation that precludes certain individuals from producing enough neuropeptide Y. When the brain produces an insufficient amount of this NPY they are prone to have more intense negative emotional responses when subjected to stressful situations. The interesting aspect of these findings is that they could possibly lead to genetic engineering and actually provide a "cure" for mental illness in the future. is part of a larger body of genetics studying mental illness which almost always leads us to more discoveries and maybe treatments. Currently we can treat the symptoms but seldom "cure" the illness unless the cause is a hormonal imbalance or if the symptoms are that of another illness that is treatable, such as some infectious diseases.
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