Abstract
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) currently affects people worldwide. Despite its multi-faceted origins and symptoms, and its myriad manifestations and outcomes, work is underway to understand the root causes of the disorder. Genetic studies, in particular, have focused on finding candidate genes for MDD, and investigating links between these genes and any particular group of people. It is hoped that these studies may shed light on the types of people that are commonly affected, and what factors make a person more or less vulnerable to depressive disorders. Multiple factors have been considered, including socioeconomic status, urban versus rural environments, ethnicity, lifestyle factors such as substance abuse and both pre- and post-natal early traumas. Through various methods, including network analyses and bioinformatics among others, significant links have been found between socioeconomic status, urban living, and MDD. Moreover, epigenetic links have been discovered between the prevalence of MDD and the prevalence of other diseases such as cardiovascular disease and other forms of mental illness, making it clear that environment plays a key role in overall health and wellbeing. While no statistically significant link between ethnicity and MDD has been found in candidate genes thus far despite certain ethnicity-based polymorphisms influencing clinical outcomes with different treatments, it is much more apparent that urban environments and early stress contribute to the prevalence of MDD.
Highlights
Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD, is a heterogeneous mental disorder commonly characterised by multiple levels of mood-affected symptoms [1]
Using meta-analysis statistical models, they demonstrated that the statistical likelihood of the set of MDD candidate genes to cause depression was significantly improved when environmental variables such as sex, age, and ethnicity were taken into account [8]
Stress associated with living in built-up areas and with earlylife trauma, appears to be the leading physical causal factor for developing depression
Summary
Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD, is a heterogeneous mental disorder commonly characterised by multiple levels of mood-affected symptoms [1]. This paper will review the current major research being carried out in this field, and give a comprehensive overview of current findings, while examining the existing data for any apparent links between the variants of MDD candidate genes and ethnic grouping.
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