Identifying Genetic and Environmental Factors That Shape Risk for Depression
Depression is one of the most prevalent, disabling, and costly mental disorders in the US. It is estimated to affect 6% of children, 12% of adolescents, and 17% of adults. Early onset depression is associated with worse illness course and outcome, including poorer health and social functioning and lower odds of employment and educational attainment. By better understanding what causes depression, we can target early life interventions to prevent depression entirely or delay the age at first onset of symptoms.
We recognize that the causes of depression are multifactorial. That’s why we study aspects of both nature and nurture and both simultaneously.
Because depression is known to be partially genetically determined, we study the role of genetic variation in shaping risk for depression. Through our involvement in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC), a massive collaborative effort to understand the genetic basis of psychiatric disorders, we’re working to identify the full spectrum of genetic variants underlying risk for and protection from depression.
Recognizing that non-European populations are dramatically underrepresented in genetics research, we are also working to conduct genome-wide association study (GWAS) in populations of diverse racial/ethnic ancestry. In GWAS studies we can interrogate the role of millions of genetic variants in shaping depression vulnerability. Our lab published some of the first genome-wide association studies of depression risk in non-European ancestry populations and the first genome-wide environment interaction study of depression.
Our research has also spanned studies on the role of schools, neighborhoods, and other settings where children live, learn, and play to identify environmental factors that contribute to depression.
By identifying who is at greater risk for depression, we hope to inform the development of interventions to reduce the burden of depression worldwide.
Selected Publications on Depression
Glickman, E.A., Choi, K.W., Lussier, A.A., Smith, B.J., & Dunn, E.C. (2021). Childhood Emotional Neglect and Adolescent Depression: Assessing the Protective Role of Peer Social Support in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12:681176.
Giannakopoulou, O., Lin, K., Meng, X., Su, M.H., Kuo, P.H., Peterson, R.E., Awasthi, S., Moscati, A., Coleman, J.R.I., Bass, N., Millwood, I.Y., Chen, Y., Chen, Z., Chen, H.C., Lu, M.L., Huang, M.C., Chen, C.H., Stahl, E.A., Loos, R.J.F., Mullins, N., Ursano, R.J., Kessler, R.C., Stein, M.B., Sen, S., Scott, L.J., Burmeister, M., Fang, Y., Tyrrell, J., Jiang, Y., Tian, C., McIntosh, A.M., Ripke, S., Dunn, E.C., Kendler, K.S., Walters, R.G., Lewis, C.M., Kuchenbaecker, K., 23andMe Research Team, China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group, Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2021. The Genetic Architecture of Depression in Individuals of East Asian Ancestry: A Genome-Wide Association Study. JAMA Psychiatry, 78, 1258-1269.
Lussier, A., Hawrilenko, M., Wang, M.J., Choi, K., Cerutti, J., Zhu, Y. Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium, & Dunn, E.C. (2021). Genetic susceptibility for major depressive disorder associates with trajectories of depressive symptoms across childhood and adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62(7), 895-904. PMID: 33125721.
Hawrilenko, M., Masyn, K.E., Cerutti, J., & Dunn, E.C. (2021). Individual differences in the stability and change of childhood depression: A growth mixture model with structured residuals. Child Development, 92(4), e343–e363. PMID: 33423273.
Nishimi, K., Choi, K.W., Davis, K.A., Powers, A., Bradley, B., & Dunn, E.C. (2020). Features of childhood maltreatment and resilience capacity in adulthood: Results from a large community-based sample. Journal of Traumatic Stress. 33(5), 665-676. PMCID: PMCID7828462. PMID: 32537815.
Choi, K., Stein, M., Nishimi, K., Ge, T., Coleman, J., Chen, C.Y., Ratanatharathorn, A., Zheutlin, A., Dunn, E.C., Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Breen, G., Koenen, K., Smoller, J. (2020). A two-stage approach to identifying and validating modifiable factors for the prevention of depression. American Journal of Psychiatry. PMCID: In progress. PMID: 32791893.
Coleman, J., Peyrot, W.J., Purves, K., Davis, K., Rayner, C., Choi, S., Hübel, C., Gaspar, H.A., Kan, C., Van de Auwera, S., Adams, M., Lyall, D., Choi, K.W., Major Depressive Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Dunn, E. C., Vassos, E., Danese, A., Maughan, B., Grabe, H., Lewis, C.M., O’Reilly, P.F., McIntosh, A., Smith, D.J., Wray, M., Hotopf, M., Eley, T.C., & Breen, G. (2020). Genome-wide gene-environment analyses of depression and reported lifetime traumatic experiences in UK Biobank. Molecular Psychiatry, 25(7), 1430-1446. PMCID: PMC7305950. PMID: 31969693.
Choi, K.W., Zheutlin, A.B., Karlson, R.A., Wang, M.J., Dunn, E.C., Stein, M.B., Koenen, K.C., Karlson, E.W., & Smoller, J.W. (2020). Physical activity offsets genetic risk for incident depression assessed via electronic health records in a biobank cohort study. Depression and Anxiety, 37(2), 106-114. PMCID: In progress. PMID: 31689000.
Dunn, E.C., Sofer, T., Wang, M., Soare, T.S., Gallo, L.C., Gogarten, S.M., Kerr, K. F., Chen, C., Stein, M.B., Ursano, R.J., Guo, X., Jia, Y., Yao, J., Rotter, J.I., Argos, M., Cai, J., Perreira, K., Wassertheil-Smoller, S., & Smoller, J.W. (2018) Genome-wide association study (GWAS) of depressive symptoms in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Journal of Psychiatric Research, 99, 167-176. PMCID: PMC6192675. PMID: 29505938.
Dunn, E.C., Brown, R.C., Dai, Y., Rosand, J., Nugent, N.R., Amstadter, A.B., & Smoller, J.W. (2015). Genetic determinants of depression: Recent findings and future directions. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 23(1), 1-18. PMCID: PMC4309382. PMID: 25563565.