Grey Areas – Are Genetics and Depression Linked?

Depression is the deep-seated disorder that very few can sit into a specific model; but in a recent study, scientists in America have attempted to understand the links between genetics and its maladies.

Depression has many causes and many symptoms – it is a despair that is rarely understood and difficult to maintain. Although it is slowly becoming public knowledge, it does not necessarily mean that depression’s roots are easily found.

Depression is said to lie within genetics; the nerve endings within the body stop reacting properly, causing a chemical balance which in turn, affects weaknesses within the brain.

Can it be so easily summarised?

Sufferers of depression would likely wish that it could be.

The multiple causes and issues that arise from depression are so varied that it is difficult to pinpoint. Some argue that it is a case of nature vs nurture, where the environment or the upbringing (war, job loss, personal issues) may have something to do with the cause, whilst others believe that it is rooted within family histories.

Thirty percent of those that take drugs to reduce the effects of depression often find that it doesn’t work, whilst others say that there are effects, but they are quite limited.

Whilst scientists attempt to understand whether or not depression is an inherited condition, there are some that believe that the causes are simply induced by emotional strain.

So where does it come from?

In scientific study, it has come to note that the mind is a very distant relation of the brain. Whilst the two are from the same source, the brain is simply a control centre, telling your body what to do and how to survive. Your basic, selfish functions reside here, letting you know when to eat, sleep, run (fight or flight) and defecate.

Your mind is the younger, rebellious black sheep.

This is where the logic and holistic areas sit. This is your memory bank, your personality, imagination and reason. It’s extensive and wonderful, the complex cousin to the brain. It is here, some theorists believe, that depression emerges from; a theory that was long-considered before the study into the possible links it may have with genes.

With the origins of depression remaining a grey area, there are some that still ask – where does it go from here?