A huge number of young people’s lives have been cut short due to depression.
However very few people seek help to overcome moods disorder.
Many factors determine a person’s risk of depression, and these include both genetic and environmental factors, such as going through difficult life events or taking medications with certain side effects.
However, while we already know some of the probable risk factors, it is not always easy to predict who is most at risk of depression, especially early on in life.
A new study looks at the genetic makeup of thousands of adults with depression to try to find an accurate way of predicting which children and adolescents may be at risk of developing this mental health problem.
Their efforts, the investigators say, would also make it easier to understand which individuals have more exposure to mental health events before some potentially confounding factors set in.
The researchers explain that on an individual basis, the different genetic variants that previous studies have associated with depression do not make a significant difference to the risk of depression.
However, cumulatively, they have a substantial effect on this risk.