The depression would be transmitted over three generations, according to the results of a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Early detection of the disease in children from families at risk seems necessary to improve treatment.
Researchers from Columbia University in the United States conducted a study that began in January 1982 and ended in June 2015. They analyzed the medical data of 251 young people, aged 18 on average. Their parents and grandparents were also questioned about their mental health.
Family history of depression is a risk factor for mental disorders
By comparing the three generations, the scientists discovered that the grandchildren who had both a depressed parent and a sick grandparent had a risk three times higher than the others of being affected by this mental disorder. The authors also found that children who lived with a depressed parent, while their grandparent was not, did not have a very stable emotional life.
If this study was carried out with a small sample of people, the conclusions should encourage health professionals to assess the risk of depression and emphasize this screening in families at risk.
“In this study, children with two previous generations with depression, were at higher risk for major depression. This study tells us the potential value of family history for depression in children and adolescents beyond two generations. Early intervention in children of two generations affected by this pathology seems justified,” concludes Myrna Weissman, from the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University.
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