有些人似乎天生就容易罹患严重的忧郁症，科学家们已经找出与之相关的染色体区域。斯坦福大学医学院的精神病学教授Douglas Levinson与其它研究人员揭开了其中的真相。
研究作者表示，如果可以发现有关的基因突变，将彻底打开研究的大门，并且有助于找到治疗的策略。这项研究报告分成两篇文章，发表于二月号的American Journal of Psychiatry中。
Levinson的研究团队研究650个家族的忧郁症发病情况，发现当中至少有两名重度忧郁症患者患病时期，是在儿童时期或成年早期。在第一项研究中，研究者进行全基因组扫描，寻找家族中遗传连锁的证据。这项研究识别出了一些值得深入检测的15号染色体区域。
第二项研究依据前一篇研究的基础，检查重要的染色体可疑区域。在第一项研究中，科学家们研究了6 个DNA标记基因，在第二项研究中又发现了88个基因。
研究人员通过研究双胞胎和家族的忧郁症模式，发现忧郁症确实受遗传影响。但是忧郁症并非单一基因造成的，相反的，很多基因的交互作用才会导致忧郁症。此外，研究人员表示，环境因素似乎也与引发忧郁症有关，例如非遗传的生理问题或心理创伤等。
(资料来源 : Bio.com)
英文原文摘要：
Genetics of Recurrent Early-Onset Major Depression (GenRED): Final Genome Scan Report
Peter Holmans, Ph.D., Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D., George S. Zubenko, M.D., Ph.D., William A. Scheftner, M.D., Raymond R. Crowe, M.D., J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., , M.D., James A. Knowles, M.D., Ph.D., Wendy N. Zubenko, Ed.D., Kathleen Murphy-Eberenz, Ph.D., Diana H. Marta, M.S.N., Sandra Boutelle, M.S., Melvin G. McInnis, M.D., Philip Adams, Ph.D., Madeline Gladis, Ph.D., Jo Steele, B.A., Erin B. Miller, M.S., James B. Potash, M.D., M.P.H., Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D. and Douglas F. Levinson, M.D.
OBJECTIVE: The authors carried out a genomewide linkage scan to identify chromosomal regions likely to contain genes that contribute to susceptibility to recurrent early-onset major depressive disorder, the form of the disorder with the greatest reported risk to relatives of index cases. METHOD: Microsatellite DNA markers were studied in 656 families with two or more such cases (onset before age 31 in probands and age 41 in other relatives), including 1,494 informative "all possible" affected relative pairs (there were 894 independent affected sibling pairs). Analyses included a primary multipoint allele-sharing analysis (with ALLEGRO) and a secondary logistic regression analysis taking the sex of each relative pair into account (male-male, male-female, female-female). RESULTS: Genomewide suggestive evidence for linkage was observed on chromosome 15q25-q26 (at 105.4 centimorgans [cM]). The authors previously reported genomewide significant linkage in this region in the first 297 families. In the secondary analysis, after empirical genomewide correction for multiple testing, suggestive linkage results were observed on chromosome 17p12 (28.0 cM, excess sharing in male-male and male-female pairs) and on chromosome 8p22-p21.3 (25.1 cM, excess sharing in male-male pairs). CONCLUSIONS: These regions of chromosomes 15q, 17p, and 8p might contain genes that contribute to susceptibility to major depression and related disorders. Evidence for linkage has been reported independently in the same regions of chromosome 15q for major depression and of chromosome 8p for related personality traits.
原文出处：Am J Psychiatry 164:248-258, February 2007
