Genetic Risks for Depression Differ Between Ancestral Groups
Researchers have now conducted the largest genomic study to date on depression in a non-European population, focusing on participants with East Asian ancestry. In a study published on September 29 in JAMA Psychiatry, they reveal that not only were a majority of genetic variants associated with depression in European populations not applicable in East Asian ancestral cohorts, but novel indicators emerged in East Asians that had not been discovered in studies on Europeans. The study’s authors caution that the existing knowledge on genetic risk factors for depression is not generalizable to a global population.
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Furthermore, when the scientists compared cardiovascular outcomes of patients with depression in European versus East Asian groups, they saw very different physical conditions associated with the disease. In European studies, clinical depression is correlated with heart problems and a high body mass index (BMI), while among people of East Asian descent, clinical depression correlated with a lower average BMI than controls without the condition. Kuchenbaecker calls these results surprising and wants to dig deeper to verify this inverse relationship between depression and BMI in specific ancestral groups.
To test the influence of environmental and cultural differences on genetic risk factors for depression, the researchers compared people in their dataset living in the US and UK with those living in China and Taiwan. The analysis turned up different genetic variations associated with depression in the two cohorts, supporting the idea that environmental or sociocultural factors affect genes’ influence on risk for depression.
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/genetic-risks-for-depression-differ-between-ancestral-groups-69326
