IS DEPRESSION INHERITED?

The predisposition to depression definitely runs in families. Studies have shown that the “first-degree” relatives—parents, children, and siblings—of depressives are two or three times more likely to become depressed than the relatives of a normal control group.

The genetic link is particularly strong among manic-depressives, approximately 50% of whom have at least one parent afflicted with major depression or another mood disorder. Among children with one bipolar parent, 27% will have a mood disorder; when both parents are bipolar, the chances jump to 50% to 75%.

The importance of this cannot be underestimated for both the patients and their families. Thousands of parents are beginning to understand that it was not their faulty parenting that caused the sadly chaotic or wasted lives of their children with mood disorders. The cause is principally biological and genetic (although environment and events certainly can precipitate depression in those with the genetic tendency). As we gain more understanding about manic and depressive illness, both bipolar and unipolar, and as researchers find more effective treatments, guilt is being lifted from these families. While depression is for the most part an inherited disease, it is also easily treatable.

Over the past thirty years, enormous strides have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders. New findings on the genetics of depression, a biological test for depression (the dexamethasone test), and precise blood measurements of lithium and antidepressant medications are now a reality. In my private practice, these tests and services are available on the premises.

Just as people in the past suffered and died from physical ailments now easily cured or prevented by medication, at least eleven million people in the United States today suffer from depressive disorders that are equally controllable. They wake up filled with dread, walk down the street wondering if they should step in front of a truck, and feel so unmotivated that sometimes they can’t even force themselves to take a shower or pick up the telephone. But these mood disorders don’t have to ruin people’s lives. With Prozac, lithium, and other drugs, new and old, they can be controlled.