Health Care : Current Reviews

Gene-environment interaction studies in depression and suicidal behavior

Global Healthcare & Fitness Summit

July 20-22, 2015 San Francisco, USA

Laura Mandelli

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Health Care: Current Reviews

Abstract:

Increasing evidence supports the involvement of both heritable and psychosocial risk factors in major depression (MD and
suicidal behavior (SB). Studies investigating genetic alterations associated to MD and SB that also consider the influence of
stress and other risk factors (gene-environment interaction studies) may be useful for elucidating the role of both biological and
psychosocial mechanisms increasing the risk for these severe conditions. Genetic studies have found alterations in some genes
associated to the risk of MD and SB especially those involved in the regulation of serotonergic and other brain systems as well
as genes coding for proteins that modulate neuronal cell grow, proliferation and that are protective against cells’ toxic agents.
In our review of the literature on gene-environment studies, we found only few reliable results obtained so far. Nevertheless,
the effect of the above mentioned genes has been repeatedly reported as moderate by stress and other psychosocial features.
The individual genetic risk for MD and or SB is therefore increased or decreased depending on the individual risky/protective
life environment. Further investigation is however required to disentangle the direct and mediated effects that are common or
specific to MD and SB. Since traditional G×E studies overall suffer from important methodological limitations, further effort
is required to develop novel methodological strategies with an interdisciplinary approach.