Study may pave way to tailor-made antidepressants

– Study may pave way to tailor-made antidepressants

A new study has confirmed a link between serotonin transporter gene and exposure to threatening life events in the onset of depression, thus backing up the relation between genetic and environmental factors in this mental disorder.

A new study has confirmed a link between serotonin transporter gene and exposure to threatening life events in the onset of depression, thus backing up the relation between genetic and environmental factors in this mental disorder.

One of the environmental risk factors more often related to depression is exposure to threatening life events. On the other side, from a genetic point of view, the serotonin transporter gene, with a crucial role in communication between neurons, could predispose to depression.

The study may help design tailor-made drugs depending on each person’s genetic configuration and their exposure to environmental factors.

The PREDICT-gene study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Jorge Cervilla Ballesteros and Blanca Gutiérrez Martínez at the University of Granada.

As part of the study researchers examined a population sample accounting for gender, age and family history of psychiatric disorders of the Spanish population.

The study found that 24 percent of the population comprising people with the s/s genotype needed minimal exposure to threatening life events, unlike individuals with s/l or l/l genotypes.

The researchers are working to open roads for psycho-pharmaco-genetics, a field that will allow for individual treatments, tailor-made drugs, for each patient with depression.

The findings of the study were published in journal Molecular Psychiatry. (ANI)

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