Genetic Study Finds Women Carry Higher Inherited Risk for Depression, With Distinct Metabolic Links

A big multinational study published in Nature Communications says that women are more likely than males to have a family history of serious depression. Some of this risk seems to be linked to genetics connected to metabolism.

Researchers from QIMR Berghofer in Australia looked at the DNA of hundreds of thousands of people, both with and without depression. They found that women had more depression-related variations than men. Nature Communications says that the scientists found 16 genome-wide significant variants in women and eight in males. They also found thousands of other signals that combined suggest that genetic factors have a bigger effect on the illness in women.

The study also looked at how genetics might affect symptoms differently in men and women, in addition to the amount of risk flags. Nature Communications says that depression-related variations in women were more likely to be found in genes linked to metabolic features. This could explain why women with depression are more likely to report changes in weight and energy levels.

According to the report, the study looked at data from several groups and included about 130,000 women and 65,000 men with depression. The total number of persons in the study was about half a million. The authors found roughly 7,000 DNA alterations that both sexes shared and another 6,000 that only females had.

Most of the time, psychiatric medicine trials have had more men than women, but these new results make the case for research and care that takes sex into account even stronger. “Figuring out the genetic factors that are the same and different in men and women gives us a better idea of what causes depression and makes it possible to make treatments more specific,” said Dr. Jodi Thomas, the study’s main author.

The study expands on past genetic studies that looked at sex differences and shows that biology is only part of the story; social factors and clinical conduct also affect diagnosis rates. Nature Communications says that the scientists still think that the size and clarity of the genetic signals, especially the metabolic overlap in women, are a step toward more focused therapies.

Molecular Psychiatry says that earlier UK Biobank research also showed genetic patterns related to sex in depression and metabolic characteristics. This is for comparison and context.

According to SciMex (QIMR Berghofer), the authors made their summary data available to the public so that labs could quickly follow up on their study.