Scientists: 30 per cent of Russians were genetically predisposed to depression
MOSCOW, 8 Feb — RIA Novosti. The company’s specialists Genotek and scientists from FMIZP Serbsky found that about 30% of Russians are carriers of mutations that make them prone to development of depression and suicidal tendencies, the press service of the company.
“The desire to find out whether you have a genetic predisposition to depression, is not idle curiosity. Depression is a disease that must be diagnosed and treated with special preparations. The efficacy of a drug for a specific organism also depends on heredity. For example, for carriers of the unfavorable variant of the gene BDNF, the most effective drugs on the basis of paroxetine,” says Valery Ilinsky, the author of the study and the General Director of Genotek.
Depression is one of the major mental diseases of mankind, causing billions of dollars in losses to the global economy each year.
According to who statistics, there are currently about 300 million inhabitants of the globe is suffering from depression, many of whom can’t get rid of depression and other mental health problems for decades.
Most people do not attach importance to the hidden symptoms of depression: write off on their satiety, fatigue, or “weather”. For innocent at first glance, the complaints may be hiding a serious illness. Video project Health Mail.Ru
Recent studies show that depression can develop not only on psychological but genetic reasons. As noted by Alexander Kibito from the Federal centre of psychiatry and addiction medicine of a name Serbian in Moscow, the probability of development of depression in humans are caused by about 38% by genetic factors. The combination of these factors often determines how good or bad will act on the patient different types of antidepressants.
Ilyinsky, Kibito, and their colleagues tried to figure out how prevalent the mutation associated with depression, among the citizens of Russia and the near abroad, using the DNA of people tested in Genotek in recent years.
According to scientists, this test was about two thousand people aged 18 to 50 years, among them approximately 40% women and 60% men. To search for mutations in genes associated with the development of depression, the researchers analyzed sets of approximately 560 thousands of small mutations, frequently found in the DNA of people and identified those that were associated with the development of depressed state.
As it turned out, about a third of participants had a mutation rs6265-T in BDNF gene associated with increased risk of depression, suicidal tendencies, introversion and ADHD. This gene, as they say scientists, is responsible for the synthesis of one of the most important hormones, neurotropic factor brain, stimulating the emergence of new connections between nerve cells.
Disturbances in the Assembly process of this hormone or the “reading” of molecules can lead to serious problems with memory, increased irritability and even more serious issues.
Despite such a large number of carriers of a mutated version of BDNF, not all of them suffered from depression and mental problems — only 3% of Russians there are mutations in both copies of the gene, and the remaining 27% “typos” there’s only one of them. People like to explain genetics, do not suffer from attention deficit and solve complex problems is no worse than other people with a different version of BDNF, which decreases your chances of developing depression.
Most people know almost nothing about the symptoms of depression. Meanwhile, the disease can hide behind the anxiety, lack of appetite or a sudden addiction to alcohol. The most common masks of depression — in the video of the project Health Mail.Ru
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