Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) could be genetically passed on, a study by Taipei Veterans General Hospital showed.
The study showed that first-degree relatives of patients with TRD are two or three times more likely to have other mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression, bipolar disorders and schizophrenia, the hospital’s Precision Depression Intervention Center director Li Cheng-ta (李正達) said.
First-degree relatives of TRD patients are 9.16 times more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, the study showed.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Veterans General Hospital
Through the analysis of medical data in Taiwan, the study confirmed that TRD can be passed on through genes and the condition is a physical illness, not mental, Li said.
CNN also reported on the hospital’s study, saying that it “analyzed national health insurance data for the entire population of Taiwan for a 15-year period ... more than 21,0000 people went on to be diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.”
“This is the most convincing evidence so far that treatment-resistant depression tends to run in families,” Andrew McIntosh, a professor of psychiatry at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, told CNN.
He was not involved in the study.
“While the findings imply a genetic basis, family members might also share life events, socioeconomic disadvantages or other unidentified risk factors,” McIntosh was quoted as saying.
Family members of a patient need not be overly concerned, as the study only indicated higher risk and did not state that family members would definitively be diagnosed with TRD, Li said.
Although they might be more susceptible to pressure, they should be alright if they are aware and take measures to release it, Li said.
Hospitals have many methods to help treat TRD patients, including phototherapy and radiotherapy, as well as medicinal methods that seek to help patients’ brain regain activity by simulating the frontal lobe, Li added.
The article was published in the international journal JAMA Psychiatry on April 3. The first author was Cheng Chih-ming (鄭智銘) and Li was a contributing author.
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