Depressed patients with earlier and more severe symptoms have high genetic risk for major psychiatric disorders
The findings highlight genetic similarities between subgroups of MDD patients based on their clinical characteristics. Although researchers know that genetics play a role in the development of MDD, the heterogeneous nature of MDD patients has hindered the search for risk genes. The new findings suggest a way to stratify the wide range of patients with MDD, which may boost the likelihood of identifying culpable genes. "This is of importance as it suggests that it is useful to create phenotypically more homogenous groups of depressed patients when searching for genes associated with MDD," said co-first author Dr. Judith Verduijn. In the study, Dr. Verduijn and Dr. Yuri Milaneschi, along with their colleagues, analyzed genome-wide data of 3331 people, 1539 of whom were diagnosed with MDD, from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. For each patient, they calculated genomic risk profile scores for MDD, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Only characteristics ass...