Mental Disorder, Depression

For major depression between monozygotic and dizygotic twins suggest a heritability of about 37%. It is lower than the heritability of bipolar disorder or schizophrenias.

Some have said there is a specific gene type we may carry, some say what we inherit isn’t in our DNA, but a vulnerability. When vulnerability is brought up along with the topic of depression, it makes it out to be a very dangerous situation. This means that if someone has close relatives who have clinical depression, that somebody may inherit a tendency to develop the illness. It does not necessarily mean that we are destined to become depressed at some point in our lives, but there is definitely a higher risk for those who are raised in this scenario. If someone has grew up with a family history of depression, are they truly at a high risk? If someone has a parent or family member with major depression, that person has a two to three times greater risk of developing the illness compared with the average person. The situation is typically a little different if the parent or close relative has had depression more than just once, known as recurrent depression, and if the illness started relatively early in the person’s life (childhood, teens, or early twenties). This form of depression would be less common – the exact percentage of the population is not exactly known for sure, but statistically may be around three to five percent. The relatives and children of people with this form of depression usually develop it at a

Parallel to this, the focus on genetics is Particularly convicted in twin studies, which establish a comparison between monozygotic twins that are identical and dizygotic twins, which are opposingly non-identical. This distinction can be identified in Torgersens study, which compared MZ and same sex DZ twins where one proband had an anxiety disorder, and it was discovered that such disorders were 5x more frequent in MZ twin pairs, who mutually shared identical genetics.

Biopsychologists believe genetics plays a factor in depression for if one has depression it is more likely that a close relative may and will suffer from depression as well. In fact about 20 percent of those relatives suffer from depression as well (Comer, R. J. 2010). Sometimes the cause for depression is simply a chemical imbalance. Low activity of norepinephrine and serotonin has been linked to unipolar depression. As well as certain interactions between neurotransmitters and the endocrine system itself has been linked to depression.

According to Castrén (2005), geneticists are searching for particular genes that may be associated with mood disorders as they often occur in the family lineage. For example, the chemical hypothesis of depression states that extended periods of changes in either the productivity or action of molecules in the brain are said to cause mood disorders. In this case, individuals can make use of

Depression often runs in families, which suggest that individuals may inherit genes that make them vulnerable to developing depression (Kam,2009). Depressive and manic-depressive illnesses occur more frequently in particular families than in the population at large. Family members of a depressed person have a risk of approximately 20-25% of having the disease themselves. Offspring at high risk for the disorder often had anxiety problems as young children (Kam,2009). The sequence seems to be anxiety disorders, mostly phobias, before puberty. Then in adolescence you begin to see depression, and sometimes in late adolescence and early adulthood, especially in boys, you see substance abuse (Kam,2009)

The biological theory of depression focusing on genetics argues that shared DNA is the cause of depression so the more genes shared with a depressed family member, the more an individual’s likelihood to develop depression. Whereas psychological theories of depression, such as the cognitive negative schema, focus on how individuals perceive

Some studies state that there is proof to a genetic link while others say if it is genetic then how did the first ancestor acquire it (Gehrman, P. etal, 2009; Is Anxiety Genetic, 2010)? Still another group simple sits on the fence and calls it multicausal referring to both genetic and environmental factors (Understanding, 2015). Reviewing the genogram of the family would leave one to believe that genetics is the main factor of depression and anxiety. As each family has gone its separate way and no two environments are the least bit similar, the high prevalence of depression and anxiety within the family points to genetic

considerably higher concordance rate than normal siblings, although non twin siblings are as genetically similar as fraternal twins. The marked rise

Depression is a mental illness in which a person experiences deep, stable sadness and discontinued interest in nearly all activities. People also use the term depression to describe the temporary sadness, loneliness,

According to Nemeroff (2007), depression is a psychological illness that affects one’s feelings, thoughts and actions.

Another study system to exhibit the hereditary influence of an illness, and separate it from the environmental influences is the twin study, which measures the relationship of the disorder between monozygotic twins (MZ - identical), with dizygotic twins (DZ - fraternal). This kind of epidemiological study presumes that twins MZ and DZ experience the same environment impact, however, the DZ display a hereditary character as comparable as two siblings born at different times, while the MZ are genetically identical. Consequently, it is conceivable to match the environmental impact between the siblings examined in order that the same is not described as a bias component. Therefore, in hereditary disorder the relationship between MZ twins would

Depression in my family history is related to experience divorce, disaster and language and cultural barriers, less sleep.

One of the scariest emotional experiences a person can ever suffer during their lifetime is to experience a form of depression. Over one in five Americans can expect to get some form of depression in their lifetime. Over one in twenty Americans have a depressive disorder every year. Depression is one of the most common and most serious mental health problems facing people today. However, depression is often not taken seriously because of the large use of antidepressant drugs and the large number of sufferers. Depression is a serious illness and should be taken as so. Contrary to the popular misconceptions about depression today, it is a serious and deadly disorder.1

Sadness is how the human being reacts to the loss of a loved one, the struggles of life, the disappointments, and the frustrations. Although it is a normal feeling in all these situations, there is a broad difference between being sad and being depressed. Unlike normal feelings of sadness, depression overwhelms a person, last a long time, and interferes with his or her day-to-day life. According to the World Health Organization in 2010, depression was reported as the most common mental disorder; it affects 120 million people globally and is among the leading causes of disability. The person that suffers from depression has to deal with being misunderstood and under-diagnosed on a daily basis, which leaves the patient with physical,